Assessment Cover Sheet
Student name
Student ID
Phone number
Email
Course code and
name
Bachelors in Social Work (Hons)
Unit code and name
Australian Society in Global Context
Name of assessment
Assessment Task 1: What is the Good LIFE (800 Words)
Due date
Friday 10th of April 2020
Lecturer/Cordinator’s
Name
Assessment Task
Assessment 1
Description: What is the Good Life, according to you? As a society, what
should we be focusing on? In this assessment piece, you are required to
draw on the concepts covered in the workshops and lectures, and your
own ideas and experiences to briefly describe your view of the Good Life.
Instructions
In this description, you can consider what you think our society should
aspire to achieve, what you think progress is (and isn’t), what we should
value, or whether you believe in promoting equality, equity or opportunity.
Highlight how your idea of the Good Life compares or contrasts with the
arguments made in the course readings. Reflect on these concepts in
relation to your own motivations for enrolling in your degree. For example,
is there a relationship between what you value, and the program that you
have enrolled in?
Here, we look at big ideas, around which our society is organised. For example, what
is the Good Life? As a society, what are we aspiring to be? What are Australian
values? Do they unite us, or cause division?
We think about the goals that we work towards – better living standards, for
example. However, where do these ideas come from? Whose idea of living standards
are we pursuing? Who determines what has value and what doesn’t?
We consider equality in our society, and how equality (or the apparent ambition for
equality) intersects with privilege and opportunity, disadvantage and discrimination.
For example, if there is equal access to education, does this mean every person has
the same opportunity to further their education? If we reward merit, does this mean
we have equality? What is the importance of advantage and disadvantage? What role
does privilege perform here? Is privilege and disadvantage real or perceived, or is the
reality of privilege accentuated by perceptions of privilege?
Assessment Criteria:
You will be assessed on the extent to which you:
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Describe your idea of the Good Life, drawing on the concepts covered in the
course (10 marks)
Relate your ideas of the Good Life to course content (5 marks)
Reflect upon the Good Life in relation to the degree program you have
enrolled in (5 marks)
Adhere to conventions of good writing, referencing, expression and grammar
(5 marks)
What is the Good LIFE?
Definition of good life varies from person to person what they dream about having a good life.
According to Plato pleasure could be a centre to our ideas about having a good life. Pleasure could be
complex some time but pleasure could motivate us or inspire us to do things and have a good life. Can
I Say that everyone in Australia is having a good life, Answer is no. What about migrants? What about
Australian Muslim community or what about minority communities in Australia? Is everyone
motivated to have a good life, fairly and equally? Answer is no
Migrants are living under poverty; elderly people who don’t have a disposable income are living under
poverty. Indigenous people are also getting treated unequally. It’s very strange that very few people
know the history of our Indigenous people who are the real owner of this land. Indigenous
communities are living below the poverty line in white Australia. Australian PM Bob Hawke back in
1988 gave the idea of “Fair go” in Australian politics. Only in 2007 Australian Government decided to
revive Australian values for individuals regardless of their race, religion, appearance or their ethnic
background. But at the same time when minority community of Muslims are labelled that Muslims
don’t belong to “team Australia” are targeted due to their religion and appearance. AMC (Australian
Muslim Community) is loyal to Australia same as other minority communities in white Australia. AMC
celebrate 26th of Jan (invasion day) to show their loyalty but the tag of disloyalty still hangs. In my
own personal life I have white Australian in laws and I celebrate Australia day with them. My in law’s
show me respect and not concerned about what religion I practice. My in law’s watch the same media
and get concerned when I travel with my wife overseas.
AMC are targeted openly as in whole if an individual acts according to his own personality or with
ongoing problems with his Mental Health, attack with Knife on Swanston St Melbourne or Attack at
Martin Place in Sydney. More Muslim youth is loosing opportunities in the early stages of their life and
are either jobless or work for Dole or on low wage or either go on early pension due to medical
disability. Due to contradicting statements from our politicians AMC, especially women’s are getting
abused racially or attacked psychically in public. It was only in 2017 new elected PM Malcolm Turnbull
sent the friendly messages to its AMC and indicated that Australian Muslims are not different. As
Austin and Fozdar state that national identities are characterised by if you belong to our colour &
culture then you are awarded on the one hand and if you belong to another colour & culture then you
will struggle. Then there are indigenous communities forced to live away from the Australian values,
Indigenous communities are excluded from the symbols of Australian identity which is hypocrisy to
portray as being non indigenous society.
Everyone has a right to have a good life equally as their other fellow citizens but it’s not the case to be
seen. Pensioners and low wage earners which are mostly elderly or migrants, struggling but our
Treasury Joe Hockey was admitting in a London summit that era of entitlements is over. Which was
indicating the intentions of our Govt to focus else where rather then the welfare of its public. It is also
quite clear who is controlling lives of struggling Australian public who are surviving either on welfare
or on non-profit organisations. That’s why I have taken this path of becoming social worker to
minimise the cultural difference by spreading more awareness in my own small Muslim community
and help those struggling migrants.
Elite class rules on Australian general Public and their influence is on all Australian resources with
mentality of who gets what. Education privilege is different for working class and different for rich
class, public schools are for working class society and educations system such as St Kevin & University
of Melbourne where working class can not even dream to send their kids for higher education. It was
only around 2002-03 when commonwealth decided to introduce Higher Education Contribution
Scheme, before that scheme working class society had to pay full fee to get to University. This Scheme
was named as HECS which is a debt or financial assistance to its young generation to get educated
and pay later, very smart move to keep its society faithful & hopeful. But not everyone will be
employed, that’s where our economy is with its rate of inflation increasing when jobs are heading
overseas and investment has dried up. I can only hope with our younger generations to understand
the needs of our Multicultural society and finish the trench of differences.
According to Robert Lane where he stated that happy life indicates about our good life, when we
share happy moments with our relatives & friends and live tension free life. We aspire to compete
with our relatives and friends to achieve the quality of life with happiness, wealth, appearance and
employment status. Having said that it’s not the case in our society where everyone is experiencing
happiness, only few people in our society are enjoying their good life.
Source of Reference:
The Good life (Handbook)
Lecture Notes
www.aph.gov.au