From invitro fertilisation to autopsy, people’s lives in Australia are potentially subject to scrutiny. The extent to which details of a particular individual’s existence are on show depends not just on the person’s own decisions but also on the decisions of related others, private firms and the state as well as inadvertent access by technology. This essay examines several points in people’s lives where they are most likely to encounter the public gaze, either now or into the future. Specifically, these junctures are the Census, The 100 point ID system and the lens of telepanoramic digital photography.
Every five years, the Census provides a snapshot of Australian households. The data collected forms the basis of public planning. (How to complete your Census form 2006, p.2) On the night of August the 8th 2006, Australian households undertook the latest census. The form could be completed in either hard copy or online. Of particular interest was Question 60, Time capsule, which invited households to have a copy of their responses to the Census identified by their names in microfilm format for future reference. This information will be held in secure storage by the National Archives of Australia for 99 years when it will be made available to ‘genealogists …, historians, academics, social analysts, journalists, and fiction and non-fiction writers’. This option was first made available at the previous Census held in 2001 (How to complete your Census form 2006, p.17).
This opportunity was welcomed by genealogists, who have long envied their British counterparts historic and full access to census data from 1841 onwards. Indeed, the 1901 census has recently been made available (Census Online 2006). In the Australian case however, t...
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...to complete your census form 2006 Australian Bureau of Statistics, Canberra.
The metroguide: a guide to Adelaide’s public transport system n.d. Adelaide Metro, Adelaide.
Murray, E 2006 ‘Jail for “greedy” con woman’, The Age, September 22. Viewed 19th of October 2006
Norris, M 2006 ‘I caught our most-wanted con woman’, Woman’s Day, October 2006, pp.34-35.
Privacy on the Internet: Effect on genealogy n.d. Viewed 12 October 2006
Tadros, E & Petrie, A 2006 ‘Moment of truth in the many lives of Jodie’, The Sydney Morning Herald, July 7. Viewed 19th of October 2006
Whittaker, N 1998 Controlling your credit cards, Simon & Schuster, East Roseville.
Maestro by Peter Goldsworthy provides an insight into 1960s/70s Australia and helps reinforce common conceptions about Australian culture. One common conception Goldsworthy reinforces in this text is Australia’s increasing acceptance of multiculturalism. Maestro, set in the 1960s to 1970s, shows Australians growing more accepting and tolerant of other cultures. This shift in perspective was occurring near the end of the White Australia/Assimilation Policy, which was phased out in the late 1970s/early 1980s. An example of this shifted perspective in Maestro is Paul’s father’s opinion about living in Darwin:
'The Australian Legend', in itself is an acurate portrayal and recount of one part of society, from a specific era, ie. the Australian bushman of the 1890s. Its exaggerations, however, such as the romanticism of the bush ethos by Australian writers, the unbalanced use of evidence, and the neglect to acknowledge the contribution to our national identity from certain sections of society, ie. aboriginal people, city-dwellers, women, and non-British immigrants, render this book to be flawed. For these reasons, it cannot be regarded as a complete and balanced account of Australian history.
When we begin our search for evidence of a person’s past we often look to many documents to aid us. Often we may look for a birth certificate or Christianing record or even a death record. However, many people may start out using census records to help them in gathering a basic timeline
The ‘Populate or Perish’ policy was put in act because Australia’s population was small and vulnerable compared to other countries like Japan, who had both a large population and a large army. The ‘populate or perish’ policy was put in act on 13th July 1945, as an ambiguous act of trying to expand the Australian population. Between 1945-1975 the Australia’s population had increased from 7 and a half million to 13 million, a large five and a half differences in people from Europe and people not from Europe. The policy was targeting the Europeans to convince to move to Australia because they fit the stereotypical perspective on ‘white’
Within Australia, beginning from approximately the time of European settlement to late 1969, the Aboriginal population of Australia experienced the detrimental effects of the stolen generation. A majority of the abducted children were ’half-castes’, in which they had one white parent and the other of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander descent. Following the government policies, the European police and government continued the assimilation of Aboriginal children into ‘white’ society. Oblivious to the destruction and devastation they were causing, the British had believed that they were doing this for “their [Aborigines] own good”, that they were “protecting” them as their families and culture were deemed unfit to raise them. These beliefs caused ...
Phillips, T., & Smith, P. (2000). What is 'Australian'? Knowledge and Among a Gallery of Contemporary Australians. Australian Journal of Political Science, pp. 203-224.
The assimilation policy was a policy that existed between the 1940’s and the 1970’s, and replaced that of protectionism. Its purpose was to have all persons of aboriginal blood and mixed blood living like ‘white’ Australians, this established practice of removing Aboriginal children (generally half-bloods) from their homes was to bring them up without their culture, and they were encouraged to forget their aboriginal heritage. Children were placed in institutions where they could be 'trained' to take their place in white society. During the time of assimilation Aboriginal people were to be educated for full citizenship, and have access to public education, housing and services. However, most commonly aboriginal people did not receive equal rights and opportunities, for example, their wages were usually less than that paid to the white workers and they often did not receive recognition for the roles they played in the defence of Australia and their contribution to the cattle industry. It wasn’t until the early 1960’s that expendi...
Immigration is an important feature of Australian society. Since 1945, over six million people from 200 countries have come to Australia as new settlers. Migrants have made a major contribution to shaping modern Australia. People born overseas make up almost one quarter of the total population. About its ethics distribution, aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people totaled 410 003 at the last census, nearly 2.2 per cent of the population. Two thirds of the indigenous people live in towns and cities. Many others live in rural and remote areas, and some still have a broadly traditional way of life.(Ning)
There are a few components that go along with technology. There are a lot of pros to technology, but what else is it good for? Many people think that technology is bad, but at this time of life, the good always outweighs the bad.
Technology is unavoidable in our modern lifestyle. You wake up, you use technology; you use technology while cooking, while eating, while driving. While you’re lying in bed before you fall asleep, you use technology, technology wakes you up in the morning. Is all the technology around you good for you, or is it harmful to your health? Was our society healthier or safer before all the advancements? So many questions and concerns about all of the technology we crave, but there are very few people who know the answers. Technology affects all parts of human life. It can create jobs, motivate people to get active, and assist people in learning, but this does not balance out that there are dangers that follow the use of technology.
Thompson, Stephen. Migration Heritage Centre, "Objects Through Time." Last modified 2011. (Accessed February 12, 2014) http://www.migrationheritage.nsw.gov.au/exhibition/objectsthroughtime/immigration-restriction-act/.
This document is about Canberra’s population over time, the first page is about immigration in Canberra such as people from other countries and other states. These stats were giv...
For a long time in Australian history, there was constant concealment of the reality of the nature of the relationships between the settlers, government, and aboriginal peoples. Aboriginal people were supposed to be British subjects, but were not aware of the fact. They would commit crimes of British law, and settlers would harm them under that justification. Jno. B Hughes wrote, in a letter to The Register, regarding the att...
Technology – as defined by the US National Academy of Science (cited in Jones 1996, p.17) –
life, I will take aspects of the ICT that I use and I will explain why