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Listed under:  Society  >  Citizenship  >  Civil rights  >  Voting rights
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Aboriginal change makers

Aboriginal history, self-determination and identity are examined in this teaching and learning eBook. The book draws on the lived experience of First Nations peoples drawing on historical record, cultural protocols and community connections to explore perspectives on traditional culture and leadership in the face of colonisation. ...

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Voting in Australia

The representatives elected to federal Parliament make decisions that affect many aspects of Australian life including tax, marriage, the environment, trade and immigration. This 28 page PDF document explains the history of Australia’s electoral system and how it works, Australia’s system of government and the role citizens ...

Video

Get involved

Explore the ways ordinary Australians can get involved in the work of Parliament with this short video (6:25 min). Find out how you can get informed about the work of the Parliament, the role of petitioning and ways to participate in parliamentary inquiries.

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The Australian Parliament

This website resource is a teacher reference about the Australian Parliament, its constituent parts and how it works. It describes in general terms the movement towards Federation then looks at the symbols and emblems subsequently adopted by the Commonwealth of Australia. The resource includes a list of the democratic rights ...

Video

Tasmania's Hare-Clark voting system

Did you know that Tasmania has an entirely different voting system to the rest of Australia? It allows five politicians to be voted into the one seat (division) in state elections. Watch as Andrew Hawkey, the Tasmanian Electoral Commissioner explains how that system works, why it came to be and why it's important for Tasmania ...

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State, territory and Australian parliaments

This website is about the parliaments of the states and territories of Australia, as well as the Australian Parliament. It describes the different origins of the colonies and their movement to self-government during the 19th century, and subsequent federation into one nation in 1901. The resource describes the structures, ...

Interactive

Making a Nation: a system of representation

This interactive resource allows students to discover the development of Australia from six separate colonies to a federated nation. Students investigate, through a variety of documents, cartoons, maps and photographs, the factors that contributed to Federation, the powers of the federal parliament, what representative ...

Online

Citizenship: Let's talk recognition

This resource (an ‘education pack’) is a 28-page pdf about citizenship learning, how citizenship is shaped by social and cultural forces, and how it relates to Reconciliation between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and non-Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Beginning with a historical summary and ...

Online

Women's suffrage

This is a website about the women’s suffrage movement in Victoria in the 19th and 20th century. The resource is presented in three sections: Introductory information; Story Objects; and Story Education Resources. There are 17 Story Objects that tell the stories of how Victorian women won the right to vote, key participants ...

Online

Get Voting

This website provides a step-by-step guide to running an school elections such as student leadership positions. The five-step process provides practical advice on preparation and a variety of downloadable resources. The forms can be customised and include nomination forms, ballot papers, how to vote cards and tally sheets ...

Online

Australian Civics and Citizenship Curriculum Year 8 unit of work

The activities and assessments in the unit will help develop students’ understanding of how citizens can participate in a democratic society and the different types of law.

Interactive

Be the change

This is an interactive about becoming an effective agent of change through civic action in a local community. Users learn a number of practical ways to take democratic action on issues. The context is an abandoned block of land located in an area with a range of issues, such as youth unemployment and environment concerns. ...

Interactive

Making a Nation: changing the Constitution

This interactive resource looks at the creation of the Australian Constitution and then explores the process used to change it - referendum. Information on several referendums is presented (1910, 1937, 1967, 1984) but, in a case study, students investigate the 1951 anti-communism referendum in more detail. The seven activities ...

Interactive

Discovering democracy: men and women in political life

Interact with a slideshow of images and text to explore some Australian men and women who have influenced the political landscape of Australia, both as elected representatives and as political leaders outside parliament. Complete a related task.

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Portrait of political activist Emma Miller, c1910s

This posed black-and-white portrait photograph of Emma Miller, probably taken in Queensland in the 1910s, shows a thin and elderly woman, fashionably dressed for the time, sitting on a chair in a studio. She is staring straight at the camera with a resolute look on her face. Her dark clothing includes a richly embroidered ...

Audio

Joan Kirner discusses affirmative action for ALP women, 2008

This is an edited sound recording of former Victorian premier Joan Kirner (1938-) talking about efforts to ensure the election of a higher proportion of female Labor Party politicians in Australia. Kirner explains how, despite the party's adoption of an affirmative action policy for women, a group of Labor women thought ...

Interactive

Biography: Federation people: Richard O'Connor

Investigate Richard O'Connor's role in the move towards Federation. Examine two different types of biographies of O'Connor: one short and the other more detailed. Inspect examples of how he was visually depicted in his time. This learning object is one in a series of objects in the 'Biography: Federation people' series.

Interactive

Discovering democracy: should the people rule?

Interact with a slideshow of images and text to explore the development of systems of government, from early democracy in Athens (where all 'citizens', a small proportion of the population, could vote), through the oligarchy in Sparta and direct democracy in Switzerland to Australia’s system of representative democracy. ...

Interactive

Discovering democracy: democratic struggles

Interact with a slideshow of images and text to explore the influence of the Chartist movement in Britain on the miners' struggles at the Ballarat goldfields, and the development of democratic ideas in Australia.

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Suffragette cartoon based in a butcher shop, 1900

This cartoon, captioned 'MARY HAD A LITTLE LAMB', features the Queensland premier Robert Philp (1851-1922) as a butcher of the 'Democratic Butchering Co'. As he sharpens his knife a small girl approaches bearing the initials WEFA (Women's Equal Franchise Association) on her coat. She leads a lamb with 'A VOTE FOR WOMEN' ...