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melbourne has been listed as the worlds best city http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/02/06/1075854028808.html i would try and add it but i am not touching a featured artical
Currently the article puts 7.5% of the Australian public as weekly church goers - however another page from the same cited website puts 9 ( http://www.ncls.org.au/default.aspx?docid=2276). I'm new to wikipedia and wouldn't know how to add this webpage as a citation - so if you think it is worth changing someone can think about it. U R A GR8 M8 02:57, 19 November 2006 (UTC)
christal is Argentinian and I'm learning English as a second language. Could you tell me what "overturne" means? -- 200.117.226.180 23:58, 2 October 2006 (UTC)
The sentence about voter turnout has been removed by blatant reverts to previous versions from days ago (19th October) for no other reason than it is "irrelevant" and can be stated in other places. What do other editors thing? Ansell 01:25, 22 October 2006 (UTC)
(Moved from WP:AWNB). The page already specifies that voting is compulsory - of course the turnout would be high. I think adding such a comment would just be redundant. From looking at the actual edits they are far too detailed for the general Australia article. -- Chuq 01:48, 22 October 2006 (UTC)
Inserting material like this into Australia when it is not yet in Politics of Australia or even Elections in Australia is bound to meet resistance. We just don't work that way. Here's how you can get information on compulsory voting into article Australia:
Hesperian 05:32, 22 October 2006 (UTC)
I think it is actually quite interesting that the number of valid votes cast is exceptionally high, as voting is not actually compulsory, only attendance at a voting booth. It is therefore interesting that 96% of people that turn up to tick their name off go on to cast a valid vote - which is high even under compulsory attendance. It is also one of the most interesting facets of Australian politics and society, so I think it should be included. Sad mouse 18:09, 4 December 2006 (UTC)
Lively debate about to occur at Alan Jones (broadcaster). Tony 13:34, 25 October 2006 (UTC)
Bit rich to call it that in the lead, when the feds come along and overrule ACT legislation whenever they like. Tony 13:37, 25 October 2006 (UTC)
Tony1 apparently has problems distinguishing between the head of state of two nations being the same person, as is currently the situation between Ausralia and the UK, and constitutional ties between the two countries which were severed in 1986. Please explain -- Michael Johnson 13:04, 29 October 2006 (UTC)
The Australian constitution is indeed part of a UK act, but acoording to Wikipedia Constitution of Australia is now regarded as fully separated from the text in the original Act, and has always been subject to amendment by referendum and without the UK amending the act. Theoreticly the UK parliament might revoke the act, butin fact gave up the right to do this by the Statute of Westminster and subsequent acts. I am sure you will find the UK government and parliament has no residual powers regarding the constitution or government of Australia, which is the question at hand.
The key passage of the Statute provides that:
"No Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom passed after the commencement of this Act shall extend or be deemed to extend, to a Dominion as part of the law of that Dominion, unless it is expressly declared in that Act that that Dominion has requested, and consented to, the enactment thereof."
I thought that was pretty straightforward. -- Michael Johnson 04:16, 30 October 2006 (UTC)
Ref 1975 Whitlam in fact had the power to remove Kerr by advising the Queen to sack him. He never did because he believed Kerr would never sack him.
Ref sect 51, this refers to areas reserved for the Federal governement, and of course the states cannot legislate in these areas. But the comment was about euthenasia, and no the Feds could not legislate to reverse state law in this area (or many others). This is in contrast to territory governments. All of which has nothing to do with the topic. -- Michael Johnson 14:18, 29 October 2006 (UTC)
Further from Wikipedia
Constitutional history of Australia
In an important constitutional case (Sue v Hill (1999) 163 ALR 648), three justices of the High Court of Australia (the ultimate court of appeal) expressed the view that if the British Parliament were to alter the law of succession to the throne, such a change could not have any effect on the monarchy in Australia, because of the Australia Act: succession to the throne would continue in Australia according to the existing rule, unless and until that was altered in Australia. None of the other four justices in that case disagreed with this reasoning.
and
The same case decided (and on this point the decision is binding) that the United Kingdom is a "foreign power" within the meaning of the Constitution,
Now I'm off to bed. -- Michael Johnson 14:29, 29 October 2006 (UTC)
How about the Australia Act, which according to the Wikipedia article eliminated the remaining ties between the legislature and judiciary of Australia and their counterparts in the United Kingdom. Or the opinion of three High Court judges (metioned above) who stated that the UK parliament is unable to legislate on even the most basic element of Australian government, the Head of State, and by implication on any other element of Australian government. Or the opinion of the authors of Wikipedia articles Constitution of Australia and Constitutional history of Australia, neither of which you have appeared to have read. Or the opinions of editors JPD and bainer given above. Or the opinions of the original authors of this article.
You are the one who wishes to change the status quo. I think it is up to you to produce just one example of a situation where the British parliament can legislate to affect Australian government or law. Up to now all you have provided is personal opinion and off-topic arguments to support your edit. -- Michael Johnson 04:36, 30 October 2006 (UTC)
The WP article the AC says "The only United Kingdom law which today has application for Australia is the law governing succession to the throne". Its assertion that the text of the constitution is "now regarded" as separate from the UK act is unreferenced—just a bald statement. I'm not satisfied in the least. When I have time, I'll return to this issue. Tony 11:35, 30 October 2006 (UTC)
The text of Constitution of Australia has been edited in a way that supports my contention that "Final" (better "The final") should be "Further": "These Acts had the effect of severing all constitutional links between Australia and the United Kingdom, except for the fact that the same person, Queen Elizabeth II, is the head of state of both countries." Tony 00:36, 31 October 2006 (UTC)
"The point of immediate significance is that the circumstance that the same monarch exercises regal functions under the constitutional arrangements in the United Kingdom and Australia does not deny the proposition that the United Kingdom is a foreign power... The United Kingdom has a distinct legal personality and its exercises of sovereignty... themselves have no legal consequences for this country." [1999] HCA 30
A note on the main Australia page: In the box on the right about the government, it should be 'Head of State' rather than Queen. The Head of State is Queen Elizabeth II. I don't think her successor will like to be called 'Queen: Charles III'. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 134.159.96.254 ( talk • contribs).
She is the Queen of Australia, though. If/when Australia has a King, the infobox will read "King:". . . Slac speak up! 04:36, 20 February 2007 (UTC)
Partial Deregulation? I'm not sure "partial deregulation" is a terribly accurate term for WorkChoices. Nonetheless, removing "partial” would seem to make the article more neutral. Fair? SolitaryWolf 12:51, 29 October 2006 (UTC)
"The mainland of the continent of Australia"—No, the first three words are redundant. Tony 13:52, 29 October 2006 (UTC)
Since I last reviewed this article, a lot of repeated links have crept back in. Why are the states linked again and again and again? The speckled blue appearance is untidy, and it dilutes the high-value links that we want readers to hit.
I have to say that the whole article needs a copy-edit. I wonder whether it should go to WP:FAR. Tony 14:00, 29 October 2006 (UTC)
See the landmass section above concerning the mainland. JPD ( talk) 19:55, 29 October 2006 (UTC)
I intend to delink words that are repeatedly linked throughout the article: see above. Tony 00:34, 30 October 2006 (UTC)
"Seats in the House of Representatives are allocated to states on the basis of population"—This is untrue for Tasmania, so the text will have to be changed. Tony 11:44, 30 October 2006 (UTC)
In "Politics" it says that the Queen is "nominally represented by" the GG. Later it says just "represented by". The wording should be the same. My new passport says "represented by" on page 1. Tony 03:40, 31 October 2006 (UTC)
A new map has been added with links to states, cities, etc. I think the concept is a great one and clearly some good work has gone into it. Two points though - which i think can be fixed: it still seems a bit, um, "messy". Can it it be tidied up some how? A border? Secondly, is it in the best position? In fact, does it mean that the existing map in the states and territories section can now be replaced with the new one? I don't think there is a need for both, and with a few more improvements, the new one could be clearly superior to the old (which i don't think actually says that much). Nice work Zondor -- Merbabu 05:16, 30 October 2006 (UTC)
Perhaps the only thing left that is missing the scale to measure distance that the previous map has. The image can be simply updated for that. -- Zondor 14:23, 30 October 2006 (UTC)
I'd like to put in a vote for adding city labels, it would make it a little more cluttered, but right now it's not obvious at a glance that the city points are links and they are a little small to easily get the rollover effect with the mouse. Kmusser 14:41, 12 December 2006 (UTC)
I removed the passage below. There's no doubt so good stuff here that can be incorporated into the article. But at the moment, it needs work:
There are 267 languages in Australia (many being Aboriginal languages.) Of those, 234 are living languages, 2 are second languages without mother tongue speakers, and 31 are extinct. The Australian English language is the most common and has a formal style as well as a colloquial style. Australia still has a formal style in writing while it sustains an informal style in speaking. In the history of the Australian English language, the language has its own background when compared to American English. Australian English is younger than American and its history is different and less complex. There has been no Australian Declaration of Independence like in America. However, Australian English has not moved as far from British English as American had in the period. In the greater part of Australia, the vocabulary is still Standard English (Hansford 67). -- Merbabu 23:39, 7 November 2006 (UTC)
By the way, English definitely has official status in Australia.
http://www.australia.gov.au/about-australia-2people
Yanksox says "invasion" is too extreme a word, yet settlement is far too "soft" a word, anybody got any good alternatives? I'm Australian and I don't call it "the settlement", I call it "the invasion", no other word I can think of accurately describes what occured. Settlement has "peacful" connotations and I believe it is misleading. If a whole bunch of unwanted people turned up with guns and started shooting you and members of your community, you would not call it a "settlement" (I hope)....
Thus, do we have a consensus on "colonisation"? -- Merbabu 00:12, 10 November 2006 (UTC)
Anyone guess why the sudden incidence of vandalism? Is it bad enough to ask for a partial restriction? Tony 11:23, 15 November 2006 (UTC)
its because of the ashes, england vs australia
"The Australian economy has not suffered a recession since the early 1990s. As of July 2006, unemployment was 4.8% with 10,223,300 persons employed."
This raises the problem of why the fact that x number of people are employed supports the assertion in the first clause. Unemployment of 4.8% may be a useful statement, but is only one of a number of determinants of "lack of recession". It's fuzzy. Tony 13:42, 18 November 2006 (UTC) There are arguments on both sides.-- Darrendeng 08:49, 30 November 2006 (UTC)
Today on the news there was somthing about Australia now officially being classified as part of Asia, anyone got any info on this?-- Rob 20:12, 20 November 2006 (UTC)
It's a tricky one, because we are geographically Asian (something none of us can deny), but culturally, we are largely "Anglo", hence the Union Jack on our flag and the Queen's head on our coins. I suggest that this point be mentioned in the article. Aussieaussie 21:35, 23 November 2006 (UTC)
Hi, I noticed while reading the section about the economy, this interesting sentence: 'As of July 2006, unemployment was 4.8% with 10,223,300 persons employed'
That's more like 48% of the population. Which digit needs to be removed?
According to the infobox 1% of Australia is water. Acc to the infoboxes for the individual states, most of the states are all between 4 and 6.6% water, Tas is 25% and NSW is just over 1%. It seems impossible for the states to average maybe 5% and the whole country to be 1%. Nurg 03:24, 2 December 2006 (UTC)
Within Wikipedia, there's frequent undefined use of "water as percent of area". Usually, the unstated assumption is that a 3 or 12 mile territorial limit at the coastline describes a captured water territory. Without definition, this isn't useful, and generally would be better broken down. In the case of Australia, very arid but with a long coastline, these figures can be misleading, and not an index of anything at all. Enclosed water (lakes and rivers) plausibly relates to climate and suitability for agriculture, etc.; an extensive coastline vs. landlocked has many implications for trade, navy/military, and fishing. They don't relate to each other in any obvious way. This is a general, perhaps endemic Wikipedia problem which I hope will be addressed. Paulownia5 20:29, 22 January 2007 (UTC)
Indigenous Australians have higher rates of imprisonment and unemployment, lower levels of education and life expectancies for males and females that are 17 years lower than those of other Australians.[19] Perceived racial inequality is an ongoing political and human rights issue for Australians. Australia has the worst racial inequality of any developed nation. I could quote many academic articles that cite examples, but many points are already listed here. The most striking is the 17 year life expectancy gap, as a comparison the life expectancy gap between white Americans and African-Americans has now shrunk to 5 years. I changed "perceived racial inequality" to "racial inequality", which was reverted back to "perceived racial inequality" on the basis of "speculation and OR". This reversion is just trying to inaccurately water-down reality and is actually quite offensive, dismissing gross inequality as merely "perceived". Sad mouse 21:09, 5 December 2006 (UTC)
On a separate, and more minor, point, the politics section mentions three major parties and then the minor parties. I edited out that the minor parties "influence has been marginal" for two reasons : 1. in the hung Senate when Howard attempted major legislative changes, the support or lack of it of these minor parties was essential. I wonder about the burden of "marginal" if they are dismissed as such - perhaps in that case the Nationals should be listed as a marginal party because their influence in the Coalition legislative agenda at times has been less than that of Senate Democrats. 2. It is really just unnecessary, the parties are already called minor, this isn't an article on the politics, why go out of the way to make a contentious statement as fact? Sad mouse 21:09, 5 December 2006 (UTC)
I made two minor changes which turned POV statements into NPOV and I posted a discussion topic for them (above). Xtra reverted the changes three times without commenting on the discussion page and putting notes on my personal talk page threatening me with being blocked from wikipedia. Is that allowable? Sad mouse 03:07, 6 December 2006 (UTC)
Okay, how is this version? The inequality is in with the statistics, and it just says that discrimination has been raised as an issue by several groups. That could be fleshed out with better references, including internal Australian groups as well as the UN groups I mentioned, but it seems a decent start. Sad mouse 17:03, 6 December 2006 (UTC)
Instead of arguing how to describe things, and what adjectives are POV and what are NPOV, why not just let facts speak for themselves? Read this - it's not long. [2] -- Merbabu 13:43, 7 December 2006 (UTC)
"...with higher rates of imprisonment and unemployment, lower levels of education and life expectancies for males and females that are 17 years lower than those of other Australians..." Although I will not deny there are issues this statement seems grossly POV.
For one the sources from which the stats were taken are not dated. Additionally, the possible reasoning behind these stats is not mentioned. For example Indigenous Australian communities are largely rural based. This is important because rural areas traditionally experience higher rates of unemployment. These rates are felt regardless of class or race. Consequently, higher crime rates become an issue. The isolated nature of Aboriginal communities also makes it difficult to supply them with public goods and services in a logistic sense.
Finally, the fact that many indigenous Australians have attained high levels of education and hold respectable positions in society should not be overlooked.
For an overview, I think Sad Mouses contributions demand a great deal of excess information to remain balanced. Until this issue can be resolved (scans history) I felt it was neccesary to tag the demographics section. SolitaryWolf 01:54, 7 December 2006 (UTC)
So now we hide all mention of racial inequality despite it clearly meeting the definition (differential performance of a racial group on social indicators) and we delete all references to concerns by international human rights groups on racial discrimination. How is removal those facts now a POV action? Sad mouse 18:13, 7 December 2006 (UTC) Well, such is wikipedia, those with the most time on their hands to revert get their way over those who discuss the point. Sad mouse 18:15, 7 December 2006 (UTC)
I think it's time to separate articles about the Commonwealth of Australia and the continent. Note that we already do have separated articles for America and United States of America, for Europe and the European Union and do not mix the terms. I was very surprized to hear from this article that Australia is a country. It sounds something like "America is a country", i.e. non-encyclopedic.-- Planemo 18:55, 7 December 2006 (UTC)
I think we should say in the introduction (or at least in the geography section) that Australia is the sixth-largest country in the world. After all, it's huge size is one of its defining characteristics. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Wideywideboy3 ( talk • contribs) 16:15, 9 December 2006 (UTC).
We have a few people abusing revert. After all the edits and consensus revisions were reverted multiple times, I thought it appropriate to simply provide a link to direct people to the Indigenous Australians article if they want to read up further on the issues facing Indigenous Australians.
All I added to the section was (see Issues facing Indigenous Australians) (which I thoroughly updated to remove some POV material, update the statistics and provide links) yet even this was reverted. Can we get someone to stop the reverters? Sad mouse 22:27, 9 December 2006 (UTC)
I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that a single link should indeed be in this section of the article - in my opinion, without it, several statements are made which aren't illustrated for the non-Australian observer. While some of the edits (eg "suffer from racial inequality") are vague and should not be in an encyclopaedia at all, the information to which Sad mouse refers seems fairly safe territory - if one wanted to make it safer, finding the Royal Commission report and a few HREOC papers wouldn't go astray. Orderinchaos78 05:09, 10 December 2006 (UTC)
"As of July 2006, unemployment was 4.8% with 10,223,300 persons employed."
Am I missing something about how unemployment is calculated? Because 10 million person unemployed would be roughly 50% of Australia's population.
Also, and this is just based on a rough guess of which I am most probably wrong: Wouldn't the south of WA be temperate? I find it hard to believe it is subtropical. Disco 14:24, 17 December 2006 (UTC)
The section under "Origin and history of the name" in this article mentions nothing of the part played by Pedro Fernandes de Queirós in the naming of Australia. Even the article on Queiros on Wikipedia states the following:
"The name of Pedro Fernandes de Queirós is today chiefly remembered in Australia. Many writers credit Queirós with coining the word "Australia" in the belief that he named his islands "Australia del Espiritu Santo", whereas he actually called them Austrialia del Espiritu Santo. (The name "Australia" was actually coined by his translator in 1625 and later was strongly endorsed by Matthew Flinders.)"
This also fails to mention that it is a widely held view that he named (what he thought was) Australia, "Austrialia del Espiritu Santo" after the King of Spain at the time, Phillip III who was from the house of "Austria" (Habsberg), hence the name "Austrialia". Here is link to one place that confirms this but it may require confirmation: [4]
It seems that no-one is 100% sure of where the name is really from but if we're stating theories on how the name was derived, surely all of them should get some coverage. Regardless, Queiros should be mentioned.
203.202.43.62 04:13, 19 December 2006 (UTC) Brett
As I stated "he named (what he thought was) Australia, "Austrialia del Espiritu Santo"". It also doesn't change the fact that on the Queiros page it states "The name "Australia" was actually coined by his translator in 1625 and later was strongly endorsed by Matthew Flinders.". In light of this, surely it should be mentioned on the Australia page (or conversely deleted from the Queiros page) that there is at least debate as to whether the name Australia came from the latin 'Australis' or as a corruption of 'Austrialia'.
203.202.43.62 01:19, 20 December 2006 (UTC) Brett
I'm not sure how much more simple I can make this. On one page in Wikipedia, the Queiros page, it states "many writers" credit the origin of the name Australia to Queiros' translator. On the Australia page it is not mentioned at all. There are two options here:
1. If it is complete hearsay and there is undisputable evidence that the name "Australia" came from the Latin word for south, the "Queiros theory" should be deleted from the Queiros page or altered to make it clear that this theory has been proven incorrect.
2. If it is a valid thoery that can't dismissed (except by Micheal Johnson's "doubts" of course), then it should be mentioned on both pages as an alternate theory as to where the name came from.
203.202.43.62 01:02, 21 December 2006 (UTC) Brett
The problem is the article on Queiros is entirely unsourced on this matter. It does say:
A devout Catholic, Queirós visited Rome in 1600, where he obtained the support of the Pope, Clement VIII, for further explorations. He went to Peru in 1603 with the intention of finding Terra Australis, the mythical "great south land," and claiming it for Spain and the Church. Queirós's party of three ships, San Pedro y Paulo, San Pedro and Los Tres Reyes left Callao on 21 December 1605, with 300 crew and soldiers.
In May 1606 the expedition reached the islands later called the New Hebrides and now the independent nation of Vanuatu. Queirós landed on a large island which he took to be part of the southern continent, and named it La Austrialia del Espiritu Santo (the Southern Land of the Holy Spirit). The island is still called Espiritu Santo. Here he founded a colony which he called Nova Jerusalem.
This in entirely consistant with what I understand was the situation. But further down it says:
The name of Pedro Fernandes de Queirós is today chiefly remembered in Australia. Many writers credit Queirós with coining the word "Australia" in the belief that he named his islands "Australia del Espiritu Santo", whereas he actually called them Austrialia del Espiritu Santo. (The name "Australia" was actually coined by his translator in 1625 and later was strongly endorsed by Matthew Flinders.)
Which does not gell with the previous quote. Either he was looking for Terre Australis or he wasn't. Neither is sourced. "Many writers" is not very reliable as a source. (added later) We understand from the first quote that the term "Terre Australis" was in use before Queiros commenced his voyage, so he didn't coin the term. He didn't encounter mainland Australia, so didn't "name" it, and his translator apparently coined "Australia". It's not clear if Matthew Flinders (who did promote Australia) was inspired by Queiros' translator or not. So it is difficult to see why one would include him in a paragraph on naming Australia.
-- Michael Johnson 01:39, 21 December 2006 (UTC)
The History section of this article says:
The Settlement and colonisation section of the article History of Australia says:
Did the region that is now South Australia accept penal transportation before its fundation? Did the region that is now Victoria accept penal transportation before or after its fundation? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 201.252.215.110 ( talk) 04:59, 20 December 2006 (UTC).
South Australia was founded as an experiment in settlement, with free settlers direct from Britain. No convicts were ever sent there. Victoria was settled as a "private enterprise" inititive from Tasmania. The first settlers probably included former convicts, and certainly many former convicts moved to Victoria as a way to advance themselves. No convicts were sent from Britain to Victoria. I don't know if any convicts still serving their term were sent from Tas to Vic, although this is possible. Also there was an attempt to establish a penal colony in Vic about 1803, but the colonists moved on to Hobart to establish Tas. WA started as a free settlement, but then asked for and received convicts to provide cheap labour, after transportation had ceased to the rest of Australia. -- Michael Johnson 05:20, 20 December 2006 (UTC)
Any desire for the culture, (or perhaps start a trivia section) to include that fact that Australia is ranked #4 in beer consumption in the world? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beer_consumption_by_country Well, it makes me proud. :) Disco 17:19, 22 December 2006 (UTC)
The article states that s51 of the Constitution gives power to the commonwealth on certain subjects and leaves 'residual power' to the States. This view has been overturned since 1920 when the High Court decided the 'Engineers Case' (1920) 28 CLR 129. The court overturned the Reserved Powers doctrine and found that subject matters should not be interpreted strictly in the Constitution. Therefore the areas not covered in s51 can be legislated on by the Commonwealth. A recent example is the new IR laws, they are based on s51(xx) Corporations power, yet they encroach on a long held 'state power'.—The preceding unsigned comment was added by 149.135.30.188 ( talk • contribs) 14:35, 4 January 2007.
- Pat (author of first point).
All of the pronounciations give /æɪ/ as the digraph in the second syllable. Although not Australian myself I have never heard it said like this with generally /eɪ/- di ? -- Qu e ntin Smith 13:09, 19 January 2007 (UTC)
Wiktionary lists these pronunciations: AusE: IPA: /əˈstræɪliə, -jə/ RP: IPA: /ɒˈstreɪliə, -jə/ GenAm: IPA: /ɔˈstreliə, -jə/ which I think should be added. Paulownia5 20:40, 22 January 2007 (UTC)
Why are the national sports teams for Austraila Green and Yellow? Gam3
On SBS last night it said a new yearbook of ABS statistics had come out - does anyone have a copy, or have the main statistics been updated? Le on 06:12, 25 January 2007 (UTC)
i heard somewhere that clocks in australia run counterclockwise. is this true? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.252.204.159 ( talk • contribs)
Maybe the clock section should be removed...if it wasn't a joke it sets another reason for not allowing public amendments to wikipedia. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 134.148.5.118 ( talk • contribs) 11:30, 5 April 2007.
The economy section is W R O N G
There is no global downturn. All industrialized countries are having the greatest boom since the 2000 IT days. If Australia is having problems with the economy it is not because there is something wrong with the world but because there is something wrong with Australia. The whole section is misleading because there is no global downturn, there might be in a few years if the USA housing market does not pick up but right now today the world economy is booming. So I will remove it within one week of today, someone else can if he/she wishes rewrite the section but to say that there is a global economic downturn is just wrong Potaaatos 22:30, 18 February 2007 (UTC)
I see this user has been banned indefinately...
It is clear from Australia (continent) that Tasmania is not part of the mainland (surprise, surprise!). Therefore we need to add it in to the mix. As the lead para was written, Tasmania seemed to figure nowhere in the makeup of Australia. JackofOz 23:49, 18 February 2007 (UTC)
how about adding in a table with australia's rankings on the HDI, the economist quality of life index etc. just like the article for norway has... —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 220.236.136.8 ( talk) 12:22, 19 February 2007 (UTC). The Capitals Nickname is called Julie stinks really bad Just letting you know. Complusory voting is not true. It is only compulsory to enrol to vote and turn up to the election and have your name ticked off the list. When you get into the booth you do not have to write/tick/mark anything on the ballot paper. You are free to leave it completely blank if you do not wish to vote.
This is all a bit pedantic, entering a blank ballot would be considered a non-vote.
It would be counted as an informal vote - of which there are too many! Its not hard to vote, especially seeing as though the parties hand out 'How to Vote' leaflets... Orbitalwow 16:08, 6 April 2007 (UTC)
- Technically it is Illegal to informally vote BUT when we have elections that only YOU know what is written on the form it's impossible to police and is left up to the person to be a good citizen -- Mcgrath50 20:58, 14 May 2007 (UTC)
Australia has been add to the new Category:Germanic culture by an editor. Please discuss this to ascertain whether this is appropriate or not - and act accordingly.-- Zleitzen (talk) 13:39, 19 February 2007 (UTC)
What is the basis for the statements about the oral culture and and spiritual values of the first immigrants to Australia, 48,000 years ago? The statement "The first Australians were the ancestors of the current Indigenous Australians; they arrived via land bridges and short sea-crossings from present-day Southeast Asia. Most of these people were hunter-gatherers, with a complex oral culture and spiritual values based on reverence for the land and a belief in the Dreamtime." ought to be supported by a citation if one is available, and deleted otherwise. Agemegos 05:27, 25 February 2007 (UTC)
Please add Kazakh interwiki: [[kk:Аустралия]] -- 82.200.172.12 11:07, 1 March 2007 (UTC)
Cyberjunkie reverted my insertion that Australian culture was indigenous culture before 1788, saying it was not factual. I cannot possibly see how that is not factual, although I'm happy to discuss the precisse wording. Let's discuss it here rather than having a revert war! (and ps: apologies for not puttinga comment on my revert!) RayNorris 09:56, 7 March 2007 (UTC)
Before 1788, the culture of most Australians was the Australian Aboriginal culture.
I noticed that under the Flora and Fauna section Australia is considered a megadiverse country.
However, when I click on the megadiverse countries link, Australia is not on that list, nor is Australia highlighted on the map of that page.
So,either Australia is indeed considered a megadiverse country and it should be on that list, or it is not and the reference to it being a megadiverse country should be removed from its description.
Just thought you might want to follow this up.
Cheers! Geckoz 05:52, 14 March 2007 (UTC)
I guess it depends on who is making up the list and for what purpose. Australia's fauna and flora is very diverse, and possibly more important, highly endemic, something that cannot be said for most of the countries on that list. -- Michael Johnson 08:17, 14 March 2007 (UTC)
Just read through this section which states:
The first undisputed recorded European sighting of the Australian mainland was made by the Dutch navigator Willem Janszoon, who sighted the coast of Cape York Peninsula in 1606.
Should this be re-worded slightly to make it clear that there are theories about other sightings such as the article in [5]? In notide that there is also a History of Australia before 1788 page and a European exploration of Australia page which each give slightly different versions. I'm not sure how much detail should be found here, but to me the current sentence is a little ambiguous. I'm not an expert in Australian history so will leave it to others who are no doubt more qualified than I am to determin what if any treatment should be given to competing historical claims. -- Hmette 06:22, 21 March 2007 (UTC)
According to my copy of the Australian Government's Style Manual (1978 edition, page 10), program is the preferred spelling of this word. I think this spelling should be used in the article and not the longer version. Does anyone have any objection to this? Michael Glass 12:34, 21 March 2007 (UTC)
There were two of each - so I change two of them and it is now consistent. Alan Davidson 13:42, 21 March 2007 (UTC)
The first use of the word "Australia" in the English language was in 1625. The words "A note of Australia del Espiritu Santo, written by Master Hakluyt" - were published by Samuel Purchas in 1625 - Purchas, vol. iv, p. 1422-1432. It was an anglicised translation of Captain de Quiros's words from 1606, who, seeking Terra Australis, named the land he landed at on the day of Pentecost "La Austrialia del Espiritu Santo". Although Cook later clarified that he had been at Vanuatu at the time, by then, the word "Australia" as a name for "Terra Australis" had been in publication 150 years. External Reference - an image of the actual page in the original publication: [6] SWCS 10:24, 22 March 2007 (UTC)
Map proves Portuguese discovered Australia: new book. All these articles need to be updated with at least a sentence about the claims made in the book Beyond Capricorn:
I can't do that because this article is protected, and I don't want to mess up the other articles. 220.227.179.4 10:53, 22 March 2007 (UTC)
Map 'proves' Portuguese found Australia Wednesday Mar 21 16:53 AEDT
A 16th century maritime map proves Portuguese adventurers, not British or Dutch, were the first Europeans to discover Australia, according to a new book.
The book, Beyond Capricorn, says the map, which accurately marks geographical sites along Australia's east coast in Portuguese, proves Portuguese seafarer Christopher de Mendonca led a fleet of four ships into Botany Bay in 1522 - almost 250 years before Britain's Captain James Cook.-- 82.155.106.144 01:44, 24 March 2007 (UTC)
Area of Australia: It is 7692024 km2 as listed in Geoscience Australia, a government agency on Geoscience http://www.ga.gov.au/education/facts/dimensions/areadime.htm
I've always understood that Australia has been populated for at least 60, 000 years. Probably much longer.
I've seen reports that comment that perhaps Homo Erectus (or however you spell it) was here and then Homo Sapian wiped them out.
Anyway.
http://www.ecobooks.com/books/futureat.htm This book is grand.
The demographics of Australia should be added. Number of Australians overseas, languages spoken in Australia, breakdown of ethic backgrounds etc.—The preceding unsigned comment was added by 24.85.161.196 ( talk • contribs) 04:21, 1 April 2007 (ACST).
I think this page needs to be protected for at least 6 mths from the anons and new users who continually vandalise the page.
This is something I cannot understand, do they find it fun to be so disruptive? -- Mark 01:58, 1 April 2007 (UTC)
The population figure is cited as being from mid-2006, though this is false and may be verified by checking the article's history - it has been modified (updated to the figure featured on Australia's population clock) since this citation was originally made. Please take necessary measures to correct the situation.—The preceding unsigned comment was added by 60.241.71.229 ( talk • contribs) 03:19, 7 April 2007 (ACST).
Socceroos, put australia on the map. put them on the page please
````a Chalres Darwin uni comp
so edit this mercilessly, im not the first king of controversy, but i am the best thing, since elvis presley —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 138.80.0.10 ( talk) 09:41, 8 April 2007 (UTC).
Why is it that there is a reference in the introduction of this article to the practice of "penal transportation", and not in others? For example, the historical reference in the introduction to the article for the United States reads:
"American society is the product of large-scale immigration and is home to a complex social structure[6] as well as a wide array of household arrangements.[7] The U.S. is one of the world's most ethnically and socially diverse nations.[8]
The nation was founded by thirteen colonies declaring their independence from Great Britain on July 4, 1776 as the new nation, the "United States of America."
There's also absolutely no mention of it in the introductions for the New Caledonia, Canada, New Zealand, India, French Guyana, nor Siberia articles. The article about the Province (now state) of Georgia does not even mention the practice at all! These places all were subject to penal transportation. Why is Australia singled out in the introduction to its national article as being subject to this insidious practice?
This is clearly a double standard.
The fact that there is one brief mention of indigenous history that glosses over 40,000+ years of habitation on the continent I believe signifies an occidental bias in this article. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 211.30.214.156 ( talk) 11:35, 12 April 2007 (UTC).
I wrote the original post above.
I am actually an Australian, and recognise that the legacy of transportation has been diminished significantly as Australian society accepts that the contributions made to Australia though free immigration (which added far more in terms of population and expertise than transportation) have had a far more significant nation-building effect on modern Australia. We don't live in a country that "started" on January 26th 1788, this country as an entity began in 1901 as a result of the actions of free and learned patriots. Despite the fact that I am from New South Wales, the fact that transportation was limited if not non-existent in places like Victoria and South Australia (not to mention the hundreds of towns and cities outside the capitals) and yet it is still credited with being the foundation upon which this nation was built, seems to indicate a bias toward New South Wales as the cradle of Australian society - which is completely wrong.
I'm not sure where you got the idea that free settlement wasn't allowed in "Australia" until sixty years after 1788. 35 years after the first fleet arrived at Port Jackson, New South Wales became a crown colony with all the rights and responsibilities associated with such a status.
The point is this: Transportation happened, and it was a part of the first permanent European settlement on what is now the Australian continent. But it was for so many other countries too. If the only reason that other national or state articles do not include this information in their *introduction* because it isn't relevant to the wider nation/state as a whole today, then Australia's article should have no need to mention transportation in its introduction as transportation has been constantly diminished through free settlement and the founding actions of Australians since 1823.
To give disproportionate credit to transportation undermines far more significant contributions to this land's human history such as indigenous habitation and free settlement. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 211.30.214.156 ( talk) 02:02, 15 April 2007 (UTC).
"By the time the free immigrants arrived in the second half of the nineteenth century, the land of Australia and control over its socio-political institutions were firmly entrenched in other hands." -Edward J. Dodson
There is no Queen of Australia the same as there is no queen of New Zealand, Queen Elizabeth II is the queen of Great Britian which is like England, Scotland, Wales, North Ireland, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, (I think) Pakistan; and of course others. please fix that, i fixed the part that said "queen Elizabeth II" and i put in the rank of Maj. Gen. Michael Jeffery and Prime minister Howard. thx -- Jameogle 02:26, 15 April 2007 (UTC)
To clarify the original query, when Pakistan became a republic, Elizabeth II ceased being Queen of Pakistan. The title is now extinct.
Queen Elizabeth II, is Queen of England and Queen of the Commonwealth, this includes Australia, New Zeland etc... thus she is Queen of Australia as well, the parlament acts on her behalf Philsgirl 13:11, 24 April 2007 (UTC)
Interesting. How did the monarchists slip that in during the public debate on severing ties with the monarchy without a consensus? Very sneaky lol. There is no mention on the Queens website of that and in fact it makes it clear that although she has other titles, only her UK title is official. So which takes precedence? Wayne 04:08, 7 May 2007 (UTC)
soz, before wat i meant to say was that she is the queen of great britian,(england, scotland, wales, north ireland) and then the Commonwealth, but she is not usually recognised as the queen of the commonwealth of Australia, i understand what your saying above, but all through the 1900s to 1940s, the Head of the monarch was only recognised as there queen because the people thought they were British, but then the statute of westminster ad the Australia act if she is trully the queen of australia, then how come we still have a governor general, wouldn't there be just a queen who lives just on the other side of the world. wouldn't australia use the same aproach as england with prime minsiter then queen, i also don't get qhat your saying how anyone could be the head of the commonwealth, then whats the piont of being in the commonwealth if the leader is not british, this commonwealth is formed on the foundations of the nation that were british colonies that regained some freedom in government affairs. -- Jameogle 04:38, 3 June 2007 (UTC)
I think that Image:Australian external territories.png should be included in the info box similar to France's article (ie underneath the world map). There isn't anything different between Australia's external territories and France's, is there? I'd add the map myself but the page is locked to me. -- 203.208.88.170 07:14, 15 April 2007 (UTC)
I think the inclusion of the external territories for France was included because of their distance from the mainland (some are on the other side of the world). This is not true in Australia in the majority of cases. This map also includes Antarctic territory which isn't actually sovereign Australian territory, so the map you mentioned is not accurate. However, I see no reason why a rectified version shouldn't be included. -- Mgill 13:23, 20 April 2007 (UTC)
Any chance of somebody getting a better quality Coat of Arms image with a transparent background (as with the images of practically all other countries' coats of arms)? I can't believe that such an image isn't in existence, or that somebody can't or isn't willing to create one. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 60.241.71.229 ( talk) 05:11, 24 April 2007 (UTC).
I have now performed all of the above-mentioned tasks. This section may now be comfortably ignored. — Owned Souls 10:15, 9 May 2007 (UTC).
![]() | This is an archive of past discussions. Do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to start a new discussion or revive an old one, please do so on the current talk page. |
Archive 5 | ← | Archive 7 | Archive 8 | Archive 9 | Archive 10 | Archive 11 | → | Archive 15 |
melbourne has been listed as the worlds best city http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/02/06/1075854028808.html i would try and add it but i am not touching a featured artical
Currently the article puts 7.5% of the Australian public as weekly church goers - however another page from the same cited website puts 9 ( http://www.ncls.org.au/default.aspx?docid=2276). I'm new to wikipedia and wouldn't know how to add this webpage as a citation - so if you think it is worth changing someone can think about it. U R A GR8 M8 02:57, 19 November 2006 (UTC)
christal is Argentinian and I'm learning English as a second language. Could you tell me what "overturne" means? -- 200.117.226.180 23:58, 2 October 2006 (UTC)
The sentence about voter turnout has been removed by blatant reverts to previous versions from days ago (19th October) for no other reason than it is "irrelevant" and can be stated in other places. What do other editors thing? Ansell 01:25, 22 October 2006 (UTC)
(Moved from WP:AWNB). The page already specifies that voting is compulsory - of course the turnout would be high. I think adding such a comment would just be redundant. From looking at the actual edits they are far too detailed for the general Australia article. -- Chuq 01:48, 22 October 2006 (UTC)
Inserting material like this into Australia when it is not yet in Politics of Australia or even Elections in Australia is bound to meet resistance. We just don't work that way. Here's how you can get information on compulsory voting into article Australia:
Hesperian 05:32, 22 October 2006 (UTC)
I think it is actually quite interesting that the number of valid votes cast is exceptionally high, as voting is not actually compulsory, only attendance at a voting booth. It is therefore interesting that 96% of people that turn up to tick their name off go on to cast a valid vote - which is high even under compulsory attendance. It is also one of the most interesting facets of Australian politics and society, so I think it should be included. Sad mouse 18:09, 4 December 2006 (UTC)
Lively debate about to occur at Alan Jones (broadcaster). Tony 13:34, 25 October 2006 (UTC)
Bit rich to call it that in the lead, when the feds come along and overrule ACT legislation whenever they like. Tony 13:37, 25 October 2006 (UTC)
Tony1 apparently has problems distinguishing between the head of state of two nations being the same person, as is currently the situation between Ausralia and the UK, and constitutional ties between the two countries which were severed in 1986. Please explain -- Michael Johnson 13:04, 29 October 2006 (UTC)
The Australian constitution is indeed part of a UK act, but acoording to Wikipedia Constitution of Australia is now regarded as fully separated from the text in the original Act, and has always been subject to amendment by referendum and without the UK amending the act. Theoreticly the UK parliament might revoke the act, butin fact gave up the right to do this by the Statute of Westminster and subsequent acts. I am sure you will find the UK government and parliament has no residual powers regarding the constitution or government of Australia, which is the question at hand.
The key passage of the Statute provides that:
"No Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom passed after the commencement of this Act shall extend or be deemed to extend, to a Dominion as part of the law of that Dominion, unless it is expressly declared in that Act that that Dominion has requested, and consented to, the enactment thereof."
I thought that was pretty straightforward. -- Michael Johnson 04:16, 30 October 2006 (UTC)
Ref 1975 Whitlam in fact had the power to remove Kerr by advising the Queen to sack him. He never did because he believed Kerr would never sack him.
Ref sect 51, this refers to areas reserved for the Federal governement, and of course the states cannot legislate in these areas. But the comment was about euthenasia, and no the Feds could not legislate to reverse state law in this area (or many others). This is in contrast to territory governments. All of which has nothing to do with the topic. -- Michael Johnson 14:18, 29 October 2006 (UTC)
Further from Wikipedia
Constitutional history of Australia
In an important constitutional case (Sue v Hill (1999) 163 ALR 648), three justices of the High Court of Australia (the ultimate court of appeal) expressed the view that if the British Parliament were to alter the law of succession to the throne, such a change could not have any effect on the monarchy in Australia, because of the Australia Act: succession to the throne would continue in Australia according to the existing rule, unless and until that was altered in Australia. None of the other four justices in that case disagreed with this reasoning.
and
The same case decided (and on this point the decision is binding) that the United Kingdom is a "foreign power" within the meaning of the Constitution,
Now I'm off to bed. -- Michael Johnson 14:29, 29 October 2006 (UTC)
How about the Australia Act, which according to the Wikipedia article eliminated the remaining ties between the legislature and judiciary of Australia and their counterparts in the United Kingdom. Or the opinion of three High Court judges (metioned above) who stated that the UK parliament is unable to legislate on even the most basic element of Australian government, the Head of State, and by implication on any other element of Australian government. Or the opinion of the authors of Wikipedia articles Constitution of Australia and Constitutional history of Australia, neither of which you have appeared to have read. Or the opinions of editors JPD and bainer given above. Or the opinions of the original authors of this article.
You are the one who wishes to change the status quo. I think it is up to you to produce just one example of a situation where the British parliament can legislate to affect Australian government or law. Up to now all you have provided is personal opinion and off-topic arguments to support your edit. -- Michael Johnson 04:36, 30 October 2006 (UTC)
The WP article the AC says "The only United Kingdom law which today has application for Australia is the law governing succession to the throne". Its assertion that the text of the constitution is "now regarded" as separate from the UK act is unreferenced—just a bald statement. I'm not satisfied in the least. When I have time, I'll return to this issue. Tony 11:35, 30 October 2006 (UTC)
The text of Constitution of Australia has been edited in a way that supports my contention that "Final" (better "The final") should be "Further": "These Acts had the effect of severing all constitutional links between Australia and the United Kingdom, except for the fact that the same person, Queen Elizabeth II, is the head of state of both countries." Tony 00:36, 31 October 2006 (UTC)
"The point of immediate significance is that the circumstance that the same monarch exercises regal functions under the constitutional arrangements in the United Kingdom and Australia does not deny the proposition that the United Kingdom is a foreign power... The United Kingdom has a distinct legal personality and its exercises of sovereignty... themselves have no legal consequences for this country." [1999] HCA 30
A note on the main Australia page: In the box on the right about the government, it should be 'Head of State' rather than Queen. The Head of State is Queen Elizabeth II. I don't think her successor will like to be called 'Queen: Charles III'. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 134.159.96.254 ( talk • contribs).
She is the Queen of Australia, though. If/when Australia has a King, the infobox will read "King:". . . Slac speak up! 04:36, 20 February 2007 (UTC)
Partial Deregulation? I'm not sure "partial deregulation" is a terribly accurate term for WorkChoices. Nonetheless, removing "partial” would seem to make the article more neutral. Fair? SolitaryWolf 12:51, 29 October 2006 (UTC)
"The mainland of the continent of Australia"—No, the first three words are redundant. Tony 13:52, 29 October 2006 (UTC)
Since I last reviewed this article, a lot of repeated links have crept back in. Why are the states linked again and again and again? The speckled blue appearance is untidy, and it dilutes the high-value links that we want readers to hit.
I have to say that the whole article needs a copy-edit. I wonder whether it should go to WP:FAR. Tony 14:00, 29 October 2006 (UTC)
See the landmass section above concerning the mainland. JPD ( talk) 19:55, 29 October 2006 (UTC)
I intend to delink words that are repeatedly linked throughout the article: see above. Tony 00:34, 30 October 2006 (UTC)
"Seats in the House of Representatives are allocated to states on the basis of population"—This is untrue for Tasmania, so the text will have to be changed. Tony 11:44, 30 October 2006 (UTC)
In "Politics" it says that the Queen is "nominally represented by" the GG. Later it says just "represented by". The wording should be the same. My new passport says "represented by" on page 1. Tony 03:40, 31 October 2006 (UTC)
A new map has been added with links to states, cities, etc. I think the concept is a great one and clearly some good work has gone into it. Two points though - which i think can be fixed: it still seems a bit, um, "messy". Can it it be tidied up some how? A border? Secondly, is it in the best position? In fact, does it mean that the existing map in the states and territories section can now be replaced with the new one? I don't think there is a need for both, and with a few more improvements, the new one could be clearly superior to the old (which i don't think actually says that much). Nice work Zondor -- Merbabu 05:16, 30 October 2006 (UTC)
Perhaps the only thing left that is missing the scale to measure distance that the previous map has. The image can be simply updated for that. -- Zondor 14:23, 30 October 2006 (UTC)
I'd like to put in a vote for adding city labels, it would make it a little more cluttered, but right now it's not obvious at a glance that the city points are links and they are a little small to easily get the rollover effect with the mouse. Kmusser 14:41, 12 December 2006 (UTC)
I removed the passage below. There's no doubt so good stuff here that can be incorporated into the article. But at the moment, it needs work:
There are 267 languages in Australia (many being Aboriginal languages.) Of those, 234 are living languages, 2 are second languages without mother tongue speakers, and 31 are extinct. The Australian English language is the most common and has a formal style as well as a colloquial style. Australia still has a formal style in writing while it sustains an informal style in speaking. In the history of the Australian English language, the language has its own background when compared to American English. Australian English is younger than American and its history is different and less complex. There has been no Australian Declaration of Independence like in America. However, Australian English has not moved as far from British English as American had in the period. In the greater part of Australia, the vocabulary is still Standard English (Hansford 67). -- Merbabu 23:39, 7 November 2006 (UTC)
By the way, English definitely has official status in Australia.
http://www.australia.gov.au/about-australia-2people
Yanksox says "invasion" is too extreme a word, yet settlement is far too "soft" a word, anybody got any good alternatives? I'm Australian and I don't call it "the settlement", I call it "the invasion", no other word I can think of accurately describes what occured. Settlement has "peacful" connotations and I believe it is misleading. If a whole bunch of unwanted people turned up with guns and started shooting you and members of your community, you would not call it a "settlement" (I hope)....
Thus, do we have a consensus on "colonisation"? -- Merbabu 00:12, 10 November 2006 (UTC)
Anyone guess why the sudden incidence of vandalism? Is it bad enough to ask for a partial restriction? Tony 11:23, 15 November 2006 (UTC)
its because of the ashes, england vs australia
"The Australian economy has not suffered a recession since the early 1990s. As of July 2006, unemployment was 4.8% with 10,223,300 persons employed."
This raises the problem of why the fact that x number of people are employed supports the assertion in the first clause. Unemployment of 4.8% may be a useful statement, but is only one of a number of determinants of "lack of recession". It's fuzzy. Tony 13:42, 18 November 2006 (UTC) There are arguments on both sides.-- Darrendeng 08:49, 30 November 2006 (UTC)
Today on the news there was somthing about Australia now officially being classified as part of Asia, anyone got any info on this?-- Rob 20:12, 20 November 2006 (UTC)
It's a tricky one, because we are geographically Asian (something none of us can deny), but culturally, we are largely "Anglo", hence the Union Jack on our flag and the Queen's head on our coins. I suggest that this point be mentioned in the article. Aussieaussie 21:35, 23 November 2006 (UTC)
Hi, I noticed while reading the section about the economy, this interesting sentence: 'As of July 2006, unemployment was 4.8% with 10,223,300 persons employed'
That's more like 48% of the population. Which digit needs to be removed?
According to the infobox 1% of Australia is water. Acc to the infoboxes for the individual states, most of the states are all between 4 and 6.6% water, Tas is 25% and NSW is just over 1%. It seems impossible for the states to average maybe 5% and the whole country to be 1%. Nurg 03:24, 2 December 2006 (UTC)
Within Wikipedia, there's frequent undefined use of "water as percent of area". Usually, the unstated assumption is that a 3 or 12 mile territorial limit at the coastline describes a captured water territory. Without definition, this isn't useful, and generally would be better broken down. In the case of Australia, very arid but with a long coastline, these figures can be misleading, and not an index of anything at all. Enclosed water (lakes and rivers) plausibly relates to climate and suitability for agriculture, etc.; an extensive coastline vs. landlocked has many implications for trade, navy/military, and fishing. They don't relate to each other in any obvious way. This is a general, perhaps endemic Wikipedia problem which I hope will be addressed. Paulownia5 20:29, 22 January 2007 (UTC)
Indigenous Australians have higher rates of imprisonment and unemployment, lower levels of education and life expectancies for males and females that are 17 years lower than those of other Australians.[19] Perceived racial inequality is an ongoing political and human rights issue for Australians. Australia has the worst racial inequality of any developed nation. I could quote many academic articles that cite examples, but many points are already listed here. The most striking is the 17 year life expectancy gap, as a comparison the life expectancy gap between white Americans and African-Americans has now shrunk to 5 years. I changed "perceived racial inequality" to "racial inequality", which was reverted back to "perceived racial inequality" on the basis of "speculation and OR". This reversion is just trying to inaccurately water-down reality and is actually quite offensive, dismissing gross inequality as merely "perceived". Sad mouse 21:09, 5 December 2006 (UTC)
On a separate, and more minor, point, the politics section mentions three major parties and then the minor parties. I edited out that the minor parties "influence has been marginal" for two reasons : 1. in the hung Senate when Howard attempted major legislative changes, the support or lack of it of these minor parties was essential. I wonder about the burden of "marginal" if they are dismissed as such - perhaps in that case the Nationals should be listed as a marginal party because their influence in the Coalition legislative agenda at times has been less than that of Senate Democrats. 2. It is really just unnecessary, the parties are already called minor, this isn't an article on the politics, why go out of the way to make a contentious statement as fact? Sad mouse 21:09, 5 December 2006 (UTC)
I made two minor changes which turned POV statements into NPOV and I posted a discussion topic for them (above). Xtra reverted the changes three times without commenting on the discussion page and putting notes on my personal talk page threatening me with being blocked from wikipedia. Is that allowable? Sad mouse 03:07, 6 December 2006 (UTC)
Okay, how is this version? The inequality is in with the statistics, and it just says that discrimination has been raised as an issue by several groups. That could be fleshed out with better references, including internal Australian groups as well as the UN groups I mentioned, but it seems a decent start. Sad mouse 17:03, 6 December 2006 (UTC)
Instead of arguing how to describe things, and what adjectives are POV and what are NPOV, why not just let facts speak for themselves? Read this - it's not long. [2] -- Merbabu 13:43, 7 December 2006 (UTC)
"...with higher rates of imprisonment and unemployment, lower levels of education and life expectancies for males and females that are 17 years lower than those of other Australians..." Although I will not deny there are issues this statement seems grossly POV.
For one the sources from which the stats were taken are not dated. Additionally, the possible reasoning behind these stats is not mentioned. For example Indigenous Australian communities are largely rural based. This is important because rural areas traditionally experience higher rates of unemployment. These rates are felt regardless of class or race. Consequently, higher crime rates become an issue. The isolated nature of Aboriginal communities also makes it difficult to supply them with public goods and services in a logistic sense.
Finally, the fact that many indigenous Australians have attained high levels of education and hold respectable positions in society should not be overlooked.
For an overview, I think Sad Mouses contributions demand a great deal of excess information to remain balanced. Until this issue can be resolved (scans history) I felt it was neccesary to tag the demographics section. SolitaryWolf 01:54, 7 December 2006 (UTC)
So now we hide all mention of racial inequality despite it clearly meeting the definition (differential performance of a racial group on social indicators) and we delete all references to concerns by international human rights groups on racial discrimination. How is removal those facts now a POV action? Sad mouse 18:13, 7 December 2006 (UTC) Well, such is wikipedia, those with the most time on their hands to revert get their way over those who discuss the point. Sad mouse 18:15, 7 December 2006 (UTC)
I think it's time to separate articles about the Commonwealth of Australia and the continent. Note that we already do have separated articles for America and United States of America, for Europe and the European Union and do not mix the terms. I was very surprized to hear from this article that Australia is a country. It sounds something like "America is a country", i.e. non-encyclopedic.-- Planemo 18:55, 7 December 2006 (UTC)
I think we should say in the introduction (or at least in the geography section) that Australia is the sixth-largest country in the world. After all, it's huge size is one of its defining characteristics. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Wideywideboy3 ( talk • contribs) 16:15, 9 December 2006 (UTC).
We have a few people abusing revert. After all the edits and consensus revisions were reverted multiple times, I thought it appropriate to simply provide a link to direct people to the Indigenous Australians article if they want to read up further on the issues facing Indigenous Australians.
All I added to the section was (see Issues facing Indigenous Australians) (which I thoroughly updated to remove some POV material, update the statistics and provide links) yet even this was reverted. Can we get someone to stop the reverters? Sad mouse 22:27, 9 December 2006 (UTC)
I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that a single link should indeed be in this section of the article - in my opinion, without it, several statements are made which aren't illustrated for the non-Australian observer. While some of the edits (eg "suffer from racial inequality") are vague and should not be in an encyclopaedia at all, the information to which Sad mouse refers seems fairly safe territory - if one wanted to make it safer, finding the Royal Commission report and a few HREOC papers wouldn't go astray. Orderinchaos78 05:09, 10 December 2006 (UTC)
"As of July 2006, unemployment was 4.8% with 10,223,300 persons employed."
Am I missing something about how unemployment is calculated? Because 10 million person unemployed would be roughly 50% of Australia's population.
Also, and this is just based on a rough guess of which I am most probably wrong: Wouldn't the south of WA be temperate? I find it hard to believe it is subtropical. Disco 14:24, 17 December 2006 (UTC)
The section under "Origin and history of the name" in this article mentions nothing of the part played by Pedro Fernandes de Queirós in the naming of Australia. Even the article on Queiros on Wikipedia states the following:
"The name of Pedro Fernandes de Queirós is today chiefly remembered in Australia. Many writers credit Queirós with coining the word "Australia" in the belief that he named his islands "Australia del Espiritu Santo", whereas he actually called them Austrialia del Espiritu Santo. (The name "Australia" was actually coined by his translator in 1625 and later was strongly endorsed by Matthew Flinders.)"
This also fails to mention that it is a widely held view that he named (what he thought was) Australia, "Austrialia del Espiritu Santo" after the King of Spain at the time, Phillip III who was from the house of "Austria" (Habsberg), hence the name "Austrialia". Here is link to one place that confirms this but it may require confirmation: [4]
It seems that no-one is 100% sure of where the name is really from but if we're stating theories on how the name was derived, surely all of them should get some coverage. Regardless, Queiros should be mentioned.
203.202.43.62 04:13, 19 December 2006 (UTC) Brett
As I stated "he named (what he thought was) Australia, "Austrialia del Espiritu Santo"". It also doesn't change the fact that on the Queiros page it states "The name "Australia" was actually coined by his translator in 1625 and later was strongly endorsed by Matthew Flinders.". In light of this, surely it should be mentioned on the Australia page (or conversely deleted from the Queiros page) that there is at least debate as to whether the name Australia came from the latin 'Australis' or as a corruption of 'Austrialia'.
203.202.43.62 01:19, 20 December 2006 (UTC) Brett
I'm not sure how much more simple I can make this. On one page in Wikipedia, the Queiros page, it states "many writers" credit the origin of the name Australia to Queiros' translator. On the Australia page it is not mentioned at all. There are two options here:
1. If it is complete hearsay and there is undisputable evidence that the name "Australia" came from the Latin word for south, the "Queiros theory" should be deleted from the Queiros page or altered to make it clear that this theory has been proven incorrect.
2. If it is a valid thoery that can't dismissed (except by Micheal Johnson's "doubts" of course), then it should be mentioned on both pages as an alternate theory as to where the name came from.
203.202.43.62 01:02, 21 December 2006 (UTC) Brett
The problem is the article on Queiros is entirely unsourced on this matter. It does say:
A devout Catholic, Queirós visited Rome in 1600, where he obtained the support of the Pope, Clement VIII, for further explorations. He went to Peru in 1603 with the intention of finding Terra Australis, the mythical "great south land," and claiming it for Spain and the Church. Queirós's party of three ships, San Pedro y Paulo, San Pedro and Los Tres Reyes left Callao on 21 December 1605, with 300 crew and soldiers.
In May 1606 the expedition reached the islands later called the New Hebrides and now the independent nation of Vanuatu. Queirós landed on a large island which he took to be part of the southern continent, and named it La Austrialia del Espiritu Santo (the Southern Land of the Holy Spirit). The island is still called Espiritu Santo. Here he founded a colony which he called Nova Jerusalem.
This in entirely consistant with what I understand was the situation. But further down it says:
The name of Pedro Fernandes de Queirós is today chiefly remembered in Australia. Many writers credit Queirós with coining the word "Australia" in the belief that he named his islands "Australia del Espiritu Santo", whereas he actually called them Austrialia del Espiritu Santo. (The name "Australia" was actually coined by his translator in 1625 and later was strongly endorsed by Matthew Flinders.)
Which does not gell with the previous quote. Either he was looking for Terre Australis or he wasn't. Neither is sourced. "Many writers" is not very reliable as a source. (added later) We understand from the first quote that the term "Terre Australis" was in use before Queiros commenced his voyage, so he didn't coin the term. He didn't encounter mainland Australia, so didn't "name" it, and his translator apparently coined "Australia". It's not clear if Matthew Flinders (who did promote Australia) was inspired by Queiros' translator or not. So it is difficult to see why one would include him in a paragraph on naming Australia.
-- Michael Johnson 01:39, 21 December 2006 (UTC)
The History section of this article says:
The Settlement and colonisation section of the article History of Australia says:
Did the region that is now South Australia accept penal transportation before its fundation? Did the region that is now Victoria accept penal transportation before or after its fundation? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 201.252.215.110 ( talk) 04:59, 20 December 2006 (UTC).
South Australia was founded as an experiment in settlement, with free settlers direct from Britain. No convicts were ever sent there. Victoria was settled as a "private enterprise" inititive from Tasmania. The first settlers probably included former convicts, and certainly many former convicts moved to Victoria as a way to advance themselves. No convicts were sent from Britain to Victoria. I don't know if any convicts still serving their term were sent from Tas to Vic, although this is possible. Also there was an attempt to establish a penal colony in Vic about 1803, but the colonists moved on to Hobart to establish Tas. WA started as a free settlement, but then asked for and received convicts to provide cheap labour, after transportation had ceased to the rest of Australia. -- Michael Johnson 05:20, 20 December 2006 (UTC)
Any desire for the culture, (or perhaps start a trivia section) to include that fact that Australia is ranked #4 in beer consumption in the world? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beer_consumption_by_country Well, it makes me proud. :) Disco 17:19, 22 December 2006 (UTC)
The article states that s51 of the Constitution gives power to the commonwealth on certain subjects and leaves 'residual power' to the States. This view has been overturned since 1920 when the High Court decided the 'Engineers Case' (1920) 28 CLR 129. The court overturned the Reserved Powers doctrine and found that subject matters should not be interpreted strictly in the Constitution. Therefore the areas not covered in s51 can be legislated on by the Commonwealth. A recent example is the new IR laws, they are based on s51(xx) Corporations power, yet they encroach on a long held 'state power'.—The preceding unsigned comment was added by 149.135.30.188 ( talk • contribs) 14:35, 4 January 2007.
- Pat (author of first point).
All of the pronounciations give /æɪ/ as the digraph in the second syllable. Although not Australian myself I have never heard it said like this with generally /eɪ/- di ? -- Qu e ntin Smith 13:09, 19 January 2007 (UTC)
Wiktionary lists these pronunciations: AusE: IPA: /əˈstræɪliə, -jə/ RP: IPA: /ɒˈstreɪliə, -jə/ GenAm: IPA: /ɔˈstreliə, -jə/ which I think should be added. Paulownia5 20:40, 22 January 2007 (UTC)
Why are the national sports teams for Austraila Green and Yellow? Gam3
On SBS last night it said a new yearbook of ABS statistics had come out - does anyone have a copy, or have the main statistics been updated? Le on 06:12, 25 January 2007 (UTC)
i heard somewhere that clocks in australia run counterclockwise. is this true? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.252.204.159 ( talk • contribs)
Maybe the clock section should be removed...if it wasn't a joke it sets another reason for not allowing public amendments to wikipedia. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 134.148.5.118 ( talk • contribs) 11:30, 5 April 2007.
The economy section is W R O N G
There is no global downturn. All industrialized countries are having the greatest boom since the 2000 IT days. If Australia is having problems with the economy it is not because there is something wrong with the world but because there is something wrong with Australia. The whole section is misleading because there is no global downturn, there might be in a few years if the USA housing market does not pick up but right now today the world economy is booming. So I will remove it within one week of today, someone else can if he/she wishes rewrite the section but to say that there is a global economic downturn is just wrong Potaaatos 22:30, 18 February 2007 (UTC)
I see this user has been banned indefinately...
It is clear from Australia (continent) that Tasmania is not part of the mainland (surprise, surprise!). Therefore we need to add it in to the mix. As the lead para was written, Tasmania seemed to figure nowhere in the makeup of Australia. JackofOz 23:49, 18 February 2007 (UTC)
how about adding in a table with australia's rankings on the HDI, the economist quality of life index etc. just like the article for norway has... —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 220.236.136.8 ( talk) 12:22, 19 February 2007 (UTC). The Capitals Nickname is called Julie stinks really bad Just letting you know. Complusory voting is not true. It is only compulsory to enrol to vote and turn up to the election and have your name ticked off the list. When you get into the booth you do not have to write/tick/mark anything on the ballot paper. You are free to leave it completely blank if you do not wish to vote.
This is all a bit pedantic, entering a blank ballot would be considered a non-vote.
It would be counted as an informal vote - of which there are too many! Its not hard to vote, especially seeing as though the parties hand out 'How to Vote' leaflets... Orbitalwow 16:08, 6 April 2007 (UTC)
- Technically it is Illegal to informally vote BUT when we have elections that only YOU know what is written on the form it's impossible to police and is left up to the person to be a good citizen -- Mcgrath50 20:58, 14 May 2007 (UTC)
Australia has been add to the new Category:Germanic culture by an editor. Please discuss this to ascertain whether this is appropriate or not - and act accordingly.-- Zleitzen (talk) 13:39, 19 February 2007 (UTC)
What is the basis for the statements about the oral culture and and spiritual values of the first immigrants to Australia, 48,000 years ago? The statement "The first Australians were the ancestors of the current Indigenous Australians; they arrived via land bridges and short sea-crossings from present-day Southeast Asia. Most of these people were hunter-gatherers, with a complex oral culture and spiritual values based on reverence for the land and a belief in the Dreamtime." ought to be supported by a citation if one is available, and deleted otherwise. Agemegos 05:27, 25 February 2007 (UTC)
Please add Kazakh interwiki: [[kk:Аустралия]] -- 82.200.172.12 11:07, 1 March 2007 (UTC)
Cyberjunkie reverted my insertion that Australian culture was indigenous culture before 1788, saying it was not factual. I cannot possibly see how that is not factual, although I'm happy to discuss the precisse wording. Let's discuss it here rather than having a revert war! (and ps: apologies for not puttinga comment on my revert!) RayNorris 09:56, 7 March 2007 (UTC)
Before 1788, the culture of most Australians was the Australian Aboriginal culture.
I noticed that under the Flora and Fauna section Australia is considered a megadiverse country.
However, when I click on the megadiverse countries link, Australia is not on that list, nor is Australia highlighted on the map of that page.
So,either Australia is indeed considered a megadiverse country and it should be on that list, or it is not and the reference to it being a megadiverse country should be removed from its description.
Just thought you might want to follow this up.
Cheers! Geckoz 05:52, 14 March 2007 (UTC)
I guess it depends on who is making up the list and for what purpose. Australia's fauna and flora is very diverse, and possibly more important, highly endemic, something that cannot be said for most of the countries on that list. -- Michael Johnson 08:17, 14 March 2007 (UTC)
Just read through this section which states:
The first undisputed recorded European sighting of the Australian mainland was made by the Dutch navigator Willem Janszoon, who sighted the coast of Cape York Peninsula in 1606.
Should this be re-worded slightly to make it clear that there are theories about other sightings such as the article in [5]? In notide that there is also a History of Australia before 1788 page and a European exploration of Australia page which each give slightly different versions. I'm not sure how much detail should be found here, but to me the current sentence is a little ambiguous. I'm not an expert in Australian history so will leave it to others who are no doubt more qualified than I am to determin what if any treatment should be given to competing historical claims. -- Hmette 06:22, 21 March 2007 (UTC)
According to my copy of the Australian Government's Style Manual (1978 edition, page 10), program is the preferred spelling of this word. I think this spelling should be used in the article and not the longer version. Does anyone have any objection to this? Michael Glass 12:34, 21 March 2007 (UTC)
There were two of each - so I change two of them and it is now consistent. Alan Davidson 13:42, 21 March 2007 (UTC)
The first use of the word "Australia" in the English language was in 1625. The words "A note of Australia del Espiritu Santo, written by Master Hakluyt" - were published by Samuel Purchas in 1625 - Purchas, vol. iv, p. 1422-1432. It was an anglicised translation of Captain de Quiros's words from 1606, who, seeking Terra Australis, named the land he landed at on the day of Pentecost "La Austrialia del Espiritu Santo". Although Cook later clarified that he had been at Vanuatu at the time, by then, the word "Australia" as a name for "Terra Australis" had been in publication 150 years. External Reference - an image of the actual page in the original publication: [6] SWCS 10:24, 22 March 2007 (UTC)
Map proves Portuguese discovered Australia: new book. All these articles need to be updated with at least a sentence about the claims made in the book Beyond Capricorn:
I can't do that because this article is protected, and I don't want to mess up the other articles. 220.227.179.4 10:53, 22 March 2007 (UTC)
Map 'proves' Portuguese found Australia Wednesday Mar 21 16:53 AEDT
A 16th century maritime map proves Portuguese adventurers, not British or Dutch, were the first Europeans to discover Australia, according to a new book.
The book, Beyond Capricorn, says the map, which accurately marks geographical sites along Australia's east coast in Portuguese, proves Portuguese seafarer Christopher de Mendonca led a fleet of four ships into Botany Bay in 1522 - almost 250 years before Britain's Captain James Cook.-- 82.155.106.144 01:44, 24 March 2007 (UTC)
Area of Australia: It is 7692024 km2 as listed in Geoscience Australia, a government agency on Geoscience http://www.ga.gov.au/education/facts/dimensions/areadime.htm
I've always understood that Australia has been populated for at least 60, 000 years. Probably much longer.
I've seen reports that comment that perhaps Homo Erectus (or however you spell it) was here and then Homo Sapian wiped them out.
Anyway.
http://www.ecobooks.com/books/futureat.htm This book is grand.
The demographics of Australia should be added. Number of Australians overseas, languages spoken in Australia, breakdown of ethic backgrounds etc.—The preceding unsigned comment was added by 24.85.161.196 ( talk • contribs) 04:21, 1 April 2007 (ACST).
I think this page needs to be protected for at least 6 mths from the anons and new users who continually vandalise the page.
This is something I cannot understand, do they find it fun to be so disruptive? -- Mark 01:58, 1 April 2007 (UTC)
The population figure is cited as being from mid-2006, though this is false and may be verified by checking the article's history - it has been modified (updated to the figure featured on Australia's population clock) since this citation was originally made. Please take necessary measures to correct the situation.—The preceding unsigned comment was added by 60.241.71.229 ( talk • contribs) 03:19, 7 April 2007 (ACST).
Socceroos, put australia on the map. put them on the page please
````a Chalres Darwin uni comp
so edit this mercilessly, im not the first king of controversy, but i am the best thing, since elvis presley —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 138.80.0.10 ( talk) 09:41, 8 April 2007 (UTC).
Why is it that there is a reference in the introduction of this article to the practice of "penal transportation", and not in others? For example, the historical reference in the introduction to the article for the United States reads:
"American society is the product of large-scale immigration and is home to a complex social structure[6] as well as a wide array of household arrangements.[7] The U.S. is one of the world's most ethnically and socially diverse nations.[8]
The nation was founded by thirteen colonies declaring their independence from Great Britain on July 4, 1776 as the new nation, the "United States of America."
There's also absolutely no mention of it in the introductions for the New Caledonia, Canada, New Zealand, India, French Guyana, nor Siberia articles. The article about the Province (now state) of Georgia does not even mention the practice at all! These places all were subject to penal transportation. Why is Australia singled out in the introduction to its national article as being subject to this insidious practice?
This is clearly a double standard.
The fact that there is one brief mention of indigenous history that glosses over 40,000+ years of habitation on the continent I believe signifies an occidental bias in this article. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 211.30.214.156 ( talk) 11:35, 12 April 2007 (UTC).
I wrote the original post above.
I am actually an Australian, and recognise that the legacy of transportation has been diminished significantly as Australian society accepts that the contributions made to Australia though free immigration (which added far more in terms of population and expertise than transportation) have had a far more significant nation-building effect on modern Australia. We don't live in a country that "started" on January 26th 1788, this country as an entity began in 1901 as a result of the actions of free and learned patriots. Despite the fact that I am from New South Wales, the fact that transportation was limited if not non-existent in places like Victoria and South Australia (not to mention the hundreds of towns and cities outside the capitals) and yet it is still credited with being the foundation upon which this nation was built, seems to indicate a bias toward New South Wales as the cradle of Australian society - which is completely wrong.
I'm not sure where you got the idea that free settlement wasn't allowed in "Australia" until sixty years after 1788. 35 years after the first fleet arrived at Port Jackson, New South Wales became a crown colony with all the rights and responsibilities associated with such a status.
The point is this: Transportation happened, and it was a part of the first permanent European settlement on what is now the Australian continent. But it was for so many other countries too. If the only reason that other national or state articles do not include this information in their *introduction* because it isn't relevant to the wider nation/state as a whole today, then Australia's article should have no need to mention transportation in its introduction as transportation has been constantly diminished through free settlement and the founding actions of Australians since 1823.
To give disproportionate credit to transportation undermines far more significant contributions to this land's human history such as indigenous habitation and free settlement. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 211.30.214.156 ( talk) 02:02, 15 April 2007 (UTC).
"By the time the free immigrants arrived in the second half of the nineteenth century, the land of Australia and control over its socio-political institutions were firmly entrenched in other hands." -Edward J. Dodson
There is no Queen of Australia the same as there is no queen of New Zealand, Queen Elizabeth II is the queen of Great Britian which is like England, Scotland, Wales, North Ireland, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, (I think) Pakistan; and of course others. please fix that, i fixed the part that said "queen Elizabeth II" and i put in the rank of Maj. Gen. Michael Jeffery and Prime minister Howard. thx -- Jameogle 02:26, 15 April 2007 (UTC)
To clarify the original query, when Pakistan became a republic, Elizabeth II ceased being Queen of Pakistan. The title is now extinct.
Queen Elizabeth II, is Queen of England and Queen of the Commonwealth, this includes Australia, New Zeland etc... thus she is Queen of Australia as well, the parlament acts on her behalf Philsgirl 13:11, 24 April 2007 (UTC)
Interesting. How did the monarchists slip that in during the public debate on severing ties with the monarchy without a consensus? Very sneaky lol. There is no mention on the Queens website of that and in fact it makes it clear that although she has other titles, only her UK title is official. So which takes precedence? Wayne 04:08, 7 May 2007 (UTC)
soz, before wat i meant to say was that she is the queen of great britian,(england, scotland, wales, north ireland) and then the Commonwealth, but she is not usually recognised as the queen of the commonwealth of Australia, i understand what your saying above, but all through the 1900s to 1940s, the Head of the monarch was only recognised as there queen because the people thought they were British, but then the statute of westminster ad the Australia act if she is trully the queen of australia, then how come we still have a governor general, wouldn't there be just a queen who lives just on the other side of the world. wouldn't australia use the same aproach as england with prime minsiter then queen, i also don't get qhat your saying how anyone could be the head of the commonwealth, then whats the piont of being in the commonwealth if the leader is not british, this commonwealth is formed on the foundations of the nation that were british colonies that regained some freedom in government affairs. -- Jameogle 04:38, 3 June 2007 (UTC)
I think that Image:Australian external territories.png should be included in the info box similar to France's article (ie underneath the world map). There isn't anything different between Australia's external territories and France's, is there? I'd add the map myself but the page is locked to me. -- 203.208.88.170 07:14, 15 April 2007 (UTC)
I think the inclusion of the external territories for France was included because of their distance from the mainland (some are on the other side of the world). This is not true in Australia in the majority of cases. This map also includes Antarctic territory which isn't actually sovereign Australian territory, so the map you mentioned is not accurate. However, I see no reason why a rectified version shouldn't be included. -- Mgill 13:23, 20 April 2007 (UTC)
Any chance of somebody getting a better quality Coat of Arms image with a transparent background (as with the images of practically all other countries' coats of arms)? I can't believe that such an image isn't in existence, or that somebody can't or isn't willing to create one. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 60.241.71.229 ( talk) 05:11, 24 April 2007 (UTC).
I have now performed all of the above-mentioned tasks. This section may now be comfortably ignored. — Owned Souls 10:15, 9 May 2007 (UTC).