Social Inequality Against Australia's Indigenous People

It seems pretty accurate enough that I can state that no country on this Earth is perfect. In fact it seems that almost every country has some form of a social integration issue, and (unfortunately) it seems that Australia is not excluded from this. Actually it seems that they are slightly similar to the United States of America, because they have quite a few social integration issues that correlates along with their indigenous population. For instance, in recent Australian news Maria Bervanakis posted an article called "Australian indigenous land rights trail Africa and Latin America, finds study," discussing how the country should be ashamed of themselves. In more detail, LandMark compared the legal indigenous peoples' lands and natural resources within 113 different countries (ranking them by using 10 indicators) coming up with not so great news for Australia. Australia, the United States, Canada and Norway scored well behind countries like Bolivia, Columbia, South Sudan, Africa and more. 

Upon reading where Australia and the other countries fell, I could not help but be in some shock. Countries like this, knowing since I've grown up in the United States, base themselves on equal rights for all. So how is this happening then? Well, within Australia, it seems that a few major acts that were put into place for the purpose of giving the Aboriginal People their land rights (Aboriginal Land Rights Acts of 1976 and the Native Title Act) have been "diluted and hollowed out right from the beginning." In reality most of the Aboriginal people actually only have access to an inferior form of a land title that in all reality only gives them the right of a native title holder. 

Lastly, Bervanakis concludes her article by stating that, "studies show that indigenous people are estimated to protect more than 50 per cent of the world's land surface but have formally recognized ownership of over just 10 per cent."  I would like to leave off with posing the question of; if indigenous people of the world were never stripped of their 50 per cent of land ownership would countries, like Australia, still be facing the same environmental problems? If so, than would the problems be as severe as so many of them are now? 

Agriculture Pollution within Australia

Throughout the world, there are only a hand full of countries that are known to have high levels of biodiversity. To be precise there are 17 countries in total, and they are known as "megadiversity" countries. Altogether, these 17 countries actually hold about 2/3 of the worlds biodiversity and one of these countries just so happens to be Australia. With Australia not having a very large population, compared to many other countries there size, they haven't had to clear much of there land for infrastructure which kept there biodiversity quite high. However, this is only on their land. You see off the coast of Queensland (top right corner of the country) there is a very well known and once beautiful environment called the Great Barrier Reefs which are actually the world's largest coral reef. Although as many people know, the coral reefs throughout the world are in grave trouble and if humankind doesn't act fast we will lose them for good. Sadly, this also includes the Great Barrier Reef. 

A large environmental problem impacting Australia today is there use of pesticides for there agriculture. The Australian government has recognized this as a major problem, because "the increased runoff of sediment, nutrients and contaminants from the land has lowered coastal water quality and marine ecosystem health across northern Australia, including the Great Barrier Reefs." Increased sedimentation on the coastal reefs have reduced the clarity in coastal waters, restricts the growth of light-dependent plants & animals, stimulates agal growth on reefs &  in reef water, increases the occurrence of coral disease, and possibly may influence the crown-of-thorns starfish outbreaks happening. Within recent years, AIMS whom has well documented the Great Barrier Reef for the past 25 years through research, has discovered that several reef foundation species are actually highly sensitive to herbicides. For instance, the chart below from FAOSTAT shows the increase in Australia's herbicide use from 1992 to 2006:

  

The chart shows that within 2006 Australia was using well over 20 thousand tonnes of herbicides on their agriculture products. However, on the bright side, Australia has set acts into place in order to make a change. One of them is the Reef Water Quality Protection Plan, which is attempting to set a world-best standard for minimizing human water quality impacts within their tropical reef waters.   

Comparing Economic Development

While researching the economic development within Australia, it seems that the most similar country to use in order to compare it with Australia would be New Zealand. Overall, the two countries have a good amount of economic development topics in common. For instance, they both have very few if any Fortune 500 companies, and both of their citizens & governments agree with a switch towards green energy throughout their lands. Many of their newer legislations have been towards creating a more environmentally friendly country (working to fix past environmental issues), and many of their larger companies create different forms a green energy like wind & power. 

Upon comparing them, I found only a few differences that the two have. While both countries were colonized by the British in the 1600's and 1700's, they both still industrialized slightly differently. You see, after industrializing, Australia historically used coal & natural gas as sources of production where New Zealand used more of their natural land resources as forms of production: like becoming more advanced in agriculture (using items like dairy, wool, and meat), and also largely using wood. Lastly, since Australia does not have a very large population meaning that they don't expand into most of their land they have maintained their biodiversity pretty well, but New Zealand has used much of their land and because of this they have lowered their biodiversity. 

   

Economic Development of Australia

In the year 1788 a fleet of British ships arrived in what is now known as Sydney, New South Whales where they established a penal colony (which was for their prisoners). With the years to follow the British set out in order to do a scientific exploration of the continent's land, and then later established colonies that went on to create the present government. Presently, the continent consists of 6 states that together create the Commonwealth of Australia where each state still retains the power to make their own laws that have to do with any matter not controlled by the "Commonwealth Section 51" in their constitution. However, the laws that effect Australia as a whole are written and passed by 3 groups: the Australian Parliament which consists of a Queen, the Senate, and the House of Representatives. 

Historically, Australia ran mostly on coal and natural gas to power everything but recently they have been making a large move towards green power like wind and solar energy. This has come much easier  for them because of the large percent of citizens that support the switch, which is mainly due to the many laws being passed/have been passed by their government. For instance, the government launched a sustainability program/plan for educating their citizens on how to live sustainably. Another large factor that is helping Australia become more sustainable, is that their are very few Fortune 500 companies (5 to be exact) based there and they are all not very large companies with as much income as some within the United States of America or England. Actually believe it or not, Australia has quite a few more large companies that specializes in green energy than they do Fortune 500 companies that do not. 

Even though Australia sounds like a great country as far as green energy goes, they still have some major problems involving their overall environment. Some of these problems being deforestation, agricultural clearing/overgrazing, overfishing/illegal fishing, pollution, and more. Since Australia is not a newly industrialized country they have had the time to mess up in a few places, involving their environment, like the majority of the world but they are working hard to fix these problems. The only issues with this is that it can get expensive. Although, with all of these factors in mind I believe that Australia is evolving quite fast and well with their many efforts in order to become a more sustainable country and continent. 

Development Metrics of Australia

1) Below is a table of the common demographic and economic development indicators: with the overall recent data for Australia

2) I have also attached two charts of environmental data, that was interesting to me, (also from Australia) below  

Data Source: World Development Indicators