Contemporary Australian Society: Issues of Poverty, Racism, Religion, and Class

This essay provides an overview of contemporary Australian society, discussing issues of poverty, racism, religion, and class. It analyses the obstacles to achieving vital social problems and the measures taken by the Australian government to improve the conditions of society.

Running head: WORKING WITH COMMUNITY
WORKING WITH COMMUNITY
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s Note

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Introduction
The present essay provides an overview on the contemporary Australian society. A
contemporary society has been defined as setting featured by technological innovation as well
as enhancing globalization and human interconnection. It usually brings about few changes
such as literacy, enhanced life expectancy, bringing about natural equilibrium and gender
equality. Contemporary Australian society is the society that is rooted in democratic
traditions, egalitarianism and espousing informality as vital societal values (Cowlishaw,
2013). This study discusses about poverty, racism, religion, class, subcultures in
contemporary Australian society. The issues affecting Australia’s contemporary society are
also analysed in this study.
Discussion
Political as well as social scientist have connected contemporary society with myriad
of certain features, which involve- higher human interactions, gender equality promotion and
respect for the human rights (Smith, Messenger & Soderland 2017). Moreover, there are
several obstacles that have come on the way to attain number of vital social problems such as
assuring appropriate gender equity in different government as well as private institutions. It
has been opined by Amin (2014) that, the contemporary Australian society is no exception
since current developments in military composition have exposed gender equity gap among
other gender related problems (Paradies, 2016). According to the few reports, certain cases
were still seen such as – intimidation, excessive alcohol consumption and male military
personnel bullying female military personnel. However, after this report was released,
Stephen Smith, Defense Minister of Australia defended the Australian Defense Force (ADF)
by referring to this released report as inaccurate. Nevertheless, other reports also pointed out
that the female military personnel has been still staying in a risky environment.

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Based on the present poverty measure, the common trend reflects that poverty rate has
increased specially for all individuals in the contemporary Australian society. Over the past
few decades, this rise in poverty rate shows that lower income people have not attained
benefit to the similar extent as that of higher as well as middle income households in the
Australian contemporary society. It has been evident from recent studies that the poverty rate
raised for children along with the households influenced by loss in job and low relative
wages.
Few researchers have found out that one of the issues that exist in contemporary
Australian society is racism. The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander group still experience
high extent of racism over several settings. It has been found out from the research that
Aboriginal people experiences racism relative to police contact and searching for housing
(Cowlishaw, 2013). However, their racism experiences were four times more than that of the
non- Aboriginal Australians. Furthermore, some evidences also highlights that near about
27% of the Aboriginal people over 15 years of age reported that they have been experiencing
discrimination in the past 12 months particularly by the common public, in employment and
in settings of law and justice. It has been seen that near about 90% of the Aboriginal people
have been experiencing race discrimination while accessing health care and hence this leads
to less effective treatment (Paradies, 2016).
The people’s expression of spirituality as well as religion in the contemporary
Australian society demonstrates diversity, which is largely outcome of certain changes by the
processes of multiculturalism as well as secularism. It has been opined by Noon, Blyton &
Morrell, (2013) that, the religious climate of Australia has been mainly dominated by convict
origins of the while settlers and suppression of indigenous Aboriginal culture of Australians,
involving Aboriginal religion. The data gathered by ABS (Australian Bureau of Statistics)

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reveals that there is positive trend towards individual choice in religion and changes in
Australians religious profiles owing to immigration.
Ammerman & Roof, (2014) cites that Australia has been traditionally regarded as classless
society. Few research has exposed that social classes exists in the contemporary Australian
society. Despite flat social structure as well as lack of class- based cleavages, the
contemporary Australian society has been stratified by the objective of multidimensional
measures of the social class. According to the recent survey of Australians and class analysis,
it has been identified that there are six types of class in the Australian society that is based on
distributions of social, economic and cultural capital (Ozdowski, 2013). The other classes are
classified as ageing labourers, precariat, emerging affluent, established affluent, new
labourers and mobile middle. The precariat is mainly featured by large number of the retired
pensioners, new labourer class by low unemployment rate and ageing labourer class by
highest mean age. Few researchers have also found out that the middle class group accounts
for near around one quarter of total population whereas the emergent affluent class usually
has youngest average age and established affluent class is the highly advantaged (Smith,
Messenger & Soderland, 2017). However, the recent survey reflects that the middle class
group is of higher percentage than other class people.
The other issues that affect the contemporary Australian society are given below-
Firstly, the blatant biasness of media
Secondly, the entitlement mentality which has been majorly generated the Australian welfare
system.
Thirdly, the lack of respect as well as honour for all classes of people in the Australian
society

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Fourthly, the binge drinking culture and other related issues related with this (Smith,
Messenger & Soderland, 2017)
Fifthly, lack of services relating to mental health of people in rural Australia.
Conclusion
From the above discussion. It can be concluded that there has been huge changes in
contemporary Australian society for the past few years. The changes have led to few problem
in the country relating to poverty, culture, class, racism and so on. The Aboriginal people in
Australia have been still facing several problems in this contemporary Australian society
relating to the health care system, housing and so on. In fact, few researches also highlights
that the established affluent class has been attaining huge benefit as compared to other class
people. However, the Australian government has been taking several measures in order to
improve the conditions of contemporary Australian society.

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References
Amin, S. (2014). Capitalism in the age of globalization: The management of contemporary
society. Zed Books Ltd..
Ammerman, N. T., & Roof, W. C. (Eds.). (2014). Work, family and religion in contemporary
society: Remaking our lives. Routledge.
Cowlishaw, G. (2013). Australian Aboriginal Studies: The Anthropologists Accounts. Sydney
Studies in Society and Culture, 4.
Noon, M., Blyton, P., & Morrell, K. (2013). The realities of work: Experiencing work and
employment in contemporary society. Palgrave Macmillan.
Ozdowski, S. (2013). Australian multiculturalism. The roots of its success. Promoting
changes in times of transition and crisis: Reflections on human rights education. Krakow:
Ksiegarnia Akademicka. Retrieved from: http://www. akademicka. pl.
Paradies, Y. (2016). Beyond black and white: Essentialism, hybridity and indigeneity.
In Handbook of Indigenous Peoples' Rights (pp. 44-54). Routledge.
Smith, G. S., Messenger, P. M., & Soderland, H. A. (Eds.). (2017). Heritage values in
contemporary society. Routledge.