Contemporary Issues in Australian Politics: Race, Nation, Class and Gender

• • Introduction: politics & social division
  • Indigenous politics: "History wars", Reconciliation, Intervention, 'Closing the Gap'
  • People Movement: Immigration, Asylum-Seekers, Nationalism, and the Politics of Border Controls
  • The Domestic Politics of Foreign Wars: Conflicts on the Homefront
  • Class in Australia, `Affluenza', and the Impact of the Economic Boom
  • Labor, Reformism, and Class: The End of Australian Social Democracy?
  • Class and Industrial Relations: The Accord, Enterprise Bargaining, WorkChoices, Fair Work
  • Class Action: the 1998 Maritime Union Dispute
  • Gender: The Rise and Fall of the Women's Liberation Movement in Australia
  • `Are We There Yet'? Equality, Post-Feminism, `Raunch Feminism', the 3rd Wave
  • Women, Babies, and the Family: the Politics of Raising Children
  • The Politics of Sex: Same-Sex Relationships in Australia
  • Conclusion: Are We Happy Now? The Australian Body Politic & Happiness, Affluence, Self-Improvement, and Depression

Equivalent subjects

You should not enrol in this subject if you have successfully completed any of the following subject(s) because they are considered academically equivalent:

• MAQ-PLT210 (Not currently available)
• MAQ-POIX201-Contemporary Issues in Australian Politics: Race, Nation, Class and Gender (No longer available)

You must have successfully completed the following subject(s) before starting this subject:

• MAQ-POIX1010-Australian Politics in Global Context

Others

NCCW (pre-2020 units) PLT210, POL201, POL250, POIX201 Pre-requisite: 40cp at 1000 level or above OR (10cp in POL or POIR or POIX units) NCCW (2020 and onwards) POIR2010 Contemporary Issues in Australian Politics: Race, Nation, Class and Gender

Additional requirements

• Other requirements -

  Students who have an Academic Standing of Suspension or Exclusion under Macquarie University's Academic Progression Policy are not permitted to enrol in OUA units offered by Macquarie University. Students with an Academic Standing of Suspension or Exclusion who have enrolled in units through OUA will be withdrawn.

This subject was previously known as POIX201 Contemporary Issues in Australian Politics: Race, Nation, Class & Gender.

As Australia progresses through the second decade of the 21st century, it confronts a number of persistent questions: Has it lived up to its reputation as an egalitarian country whose unofficial motto is ‘fair go!’? How have class relations been impacted on – if at all – by the economic boom of the past two decades? Are Australian women and men really equal in the context of the rise and fall of the Women’s Liberation Movement and the emergence of so-called ‘raunch feminism’? What are the prospects for closing the gap between the country’s indigenous people and its more recent arrivals? Taking as its central themes, race, nation, class and gender, the subject is structured in the following way: Weeks 2-4 deal with race and nation; Weeks 5-8 with class politics; Weeks 9-12 with gender and sexuality; Week 13 concludes the subject by examining the health of the Australian body politic in light of the foregoing discussions about its divided state.

• Online Quizzes (20%)
• Take-Home Exam (25%)
• Essay (45%)
• Online Participation (10%)

Current study term: 24 Jul 22 to 06 Nov 22