Who's Running This Country? by John Nicholson

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1 Teachers Notes (Primary) by Peter Legge Who's Running This Country? by John Nicholson These notes may be reproduced free of charge for use and study within schools but they may not be reproduced (either in whole or in part) and offered for commercial sale. Why Do We Need a Government? 1 Chapter 1 - The Big Picture 1 Chapter 2 - Parliaments and Parties 2 Chapter 3 - The Work of Government 2 Chapter 4 - Elections 3 Chapter 5 - Democracy in Action 4 Chapter 6 - Change and the Future 4 Chapter 7 - Symbols of Power 5 WHY DO WE NEED A GOVERNMENT Look in current newspapers and find examples of laws made in each of the five areas John Nicholson lists as governments' main activities. Use these as the basis for discussions about why we need governments and what life would be like without them. Students may wish to decorate a display area of the classroom with a day or a week of newspaper stories. CHAPTER 1 - THE BIG PICTURE 1. Discuss why the aboriginal system of decision making with older men making all the important decisions worked for them. Why would this not work today in a country such as Australia? 2. Design a constitution for the classroom. What is the function of your classroom? What are the crucial rules needed for the smooth functioning of your class? How should the various people in the classroom have their rights protected?

2 Who needs to be consulted before your constitution is finalised? 3. Find out the names of the Governor-General and each of the State Governors and label the diagram on page 8. Who is the mayor, shire president (or equivalent) of your local municipality? Invite the mayor along to tell your class about the role of your local council - what are it's responsibilities? how is the council elected? how many council members? how often does it meet? 4. Look at the last paragraph of Chapter 1. Many people still remember this event very well. Do some research. Look up the history of the dismissal of the Whitlam government; interview people who may remember the event; imagine the comments that important people involved may have made (or actually did make!) and then write up the front page story, 'Kerr Sacks PM', from the newspaper illustrated on page Look at a map of Western Australia. How many of the places listed on the board can you locate on the map? Which areas of Western Australia contained most voters in 1900? Check that they got the arithmetic correct. CHAPTER 2 PARLIAMENTS AND PARTIES 7. Imagine you are an ordinary Member of Parliament, not a Minister or member of the Cabinet. What would be the typical activities in which you would be engaged? 8. Explain the different functions performed by the Government and the Opposition? 9. Discuss why it would be that, 'In general the two sides seem to work more co-operatively in committees than in parliament.' What differences are there between the functions of the parliament and the committees that may cause this to happen? 10. Set up your own 'mock' parliament. Appoint people to be the Speaker, the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition, Ministers and Shadow Ministers, and backbenchers. Choose a topic (perhaps one which is currently in the news), decide how each side would approach the topic and then have either a debate (members of each side putting their points of view) or a question time (where Opposition members put questions that the Government tries to answer). 11. Research the histories, policies, important people and events of each of the main political parties. Choose an important aspect for each class member and present the findings in a series of posters for classroom display. CHAPTER 3 - THE WORK OF GOVERNMENT 12. Find out which tier of government is responsible for providing each of the activities mentioned in the dot points on page 17 to 18. Which activities are shared responsibilities between more than one tier of government? Some of these activities are not the sole responsibility of government. Which ones? Some activities are in the process of no longer being the responsibility of governments (being privatised). Which ones?

3 13. Taxes are always a very contentious issue. How imaginative can the class be in devising a fair, interesting and/or original tax structure? 14. Research the names of all the Federal or your local State Government Ministers and the titles of the departments for which each is responsible. You should be able to use the internet as a fast method of locating the relevant information - Parliament House in Canberra has its own net site. Do a class project covering all the departments. If you wish to write to each department, they will have materials they can send you. Be sure to set out your letter in modern formal style with names, titles, addresses and dates in the conventional positions. CHAPTER 4 - ELECTIONS 15. Write the speech that the woman illustrated on page 19 might have made to the people campaigning for the right for women to vote around the time of Federation in Australia. 16. Hold a class or school election campaign. Make decisions about parties, candidates, campaigns, speeches, the voting system (preferential or first-past-the-post). Design advertising posters, slogans and how-to-vote cards. Set up an electoral roll and polling booths on the day chosen as election day - probably not a Saturday, despite this being traditional in Australia. You can extend this activity to writing articles for the newspapers, filming the campaign speeches, conducting polls of students before election day and appointing scrutineers for the counting. 17. Ask your local Electoral Office to conduct your Student Council elections. So long as they are not in the middle of a real election themselves, they will generally be willing to bring booths, boxes and officials to oversee and count your own votes. They will also provide feedback and information to classes on the process. This is an excellent educational activity for Civics programs. 18. Write a dialogue or play called "Election Night". You could use the illustration on page 21 as the basis and decide who each of the characters might be. It is always interesting to include one person who disagrees with some of the others in order to set up some tension in your writing. 19. Follow a real election in action if there is one happening somewhere in Australia (isn't there always?). Look at such aspects as parties, policies, campaigns, issues, advertising, vote counting, swings and results. Have each student keep a 'campaign diary' listing the main events/issues of each day or week. Develop a class timeline listing key elements of the campaign in chronological order. 20. Do a media analysis of how an issue is presented. Choose a political issue of importance to the government. Have students collect a variety of newspaper texts on the issue. Depending on the age of the students, you could use these as: a simple collection task to develop newspaper familiarity, a writing task to model informative/opinionative writing, a task focusing on the range of articles in a newspaper (news, feature, opinion, editorial, letters, etc.), or a language analysis task focusing on the presentation of material in one or more types of article.

4 CHAPTER 5 - DEMOCRACY IN ACTION 21. Write a Bill of Rights for Australia. Look at the dot points on pages 23 to 24 and see what extra points you would include. 22. Describe what it would be like in a rally like the one illustrated on page23. Imagine it from the viewpoints of two different characters; for example: someone holding a placard and a policeman controlling the crowd. an organiser of the rally and someone caught in the traffic. the person making the speech and a bystander on their way to work. the man taking the photograph and a small child in the middle of the crowd. 23. Introduce the method of using case studies as a way of delivering information. Use an issue at your school or in your neighbourhood and present the information as a case study with drawings and diagrams to reconstruct relevant aspects of your research. 24. Write a feature article for a magazine published outside Australia explaining the material outlined in the case study (the gun debate) in this chapter. Remember that a good feature article will include: a headline, by-line and 'blurb' a vivid opening paragraph to 'hook' the audience, using such devices as: a description of a key event a second person narrative (using 'you', 'your') a case study research into the background of the topic a detailed examination of all aspects of the topic quoted interviews with key people an 'angle' on the topic a satisfying conclusion that makes a point about the significance of the events 25. Write the report delivered by the minister for sport to the Riddells Creek Primary School. Remember that a report should investigate the proposal from a variety of angles, including positives and negatives but that it should include some definite proposals for or against implementation. CHAPTER 6 - CHANGE AND THE FUTURE 26. Use the material in this chapter as the basis for researching and then writing a persuasive piece of personal writing on one of the topics suggested in the box on page 30 or on a related issue about the future of government in Australia. Ensure that students write in the formal essay style including: a clear contention (capable of being expressed in the form beginning 'That...) an introductory paragraph addressing the topic and the aspects of the issue to be

5 covered a body of several paragraphs outlined the issue and the point of view a concluding paragraph encapsulating what has been 'proven'. 27. Conduct a formal debate, or series of debates, on these topics. CHAPTER 7 - SYMBOLS OF POWER 28. The Australian flag is often being redesigned for competitions of one sort or another. Conduct you own design competition and exhibit the entries. Preliminary discussion could centre on appropriate symbols for inclusion - you may then develop a design brief for students to follow or allow their imaginations full rein, depending on your purpose. 29. Have a close look at our new Parliament House in Canberra, opened in Explain its history and development. What aspects of Australian life, culture and government are emphasised in its design, fittings, decorations and location? Have the students produce a series of projects on Parliament House. 30. Design your own Parliament House for the 21st century. What would be an appropriate design to express Australia in the future? Appendices Australian Prime Ministers 31. Produce some short biographical sketches, similar to the ones done by John Nicholson for earlier Prime Ministers, for the four most recent Prime Ministers of Australia.

Australian and International Politics Subject Outline Stage 1 and Stage 2

Australian and International Politics 2019 Subject Outline Stage 1 and Stage 2 Published by the SACE Board of South Australia, 60 Greenhill Road, Wayville, South Australia 5034 Copyright SACE Board of