Harvesters Judgement Act Analysis

Prior to the arrival of the first fleet in 1788, it is estimated that there were around 750, 000 Indigenous Australians living in Australia. Between 1788 and 1900 there was a depopulation of Indigenous Australians due to not only conflict and violence from the Europeans, but particularly the introduction of new diseases from them. It was undoubtedly true that in the first decades the spread of unknown diseases was rapid and the resistance was so low it resulted in higher death rates. The decreasing population resulted in demoralisation of Indigenous Australians and overruling by the Europeans. This overruling resulted in British Law, which subsequently proceeded to established acts of legislation such as the Aborigines Protection Act 1909 (NSW). But why was this legislation formed? According to the

Many people still thought that a woman's place was "in the kitchen", this changed shortly after the second world war. 500,000 women joined the workforce post WW1 because all of the men had gone to war. This set Australia up and benefited from more people with a wider experience in many jobs.

The Fair Labor Standards Act was first introduced and passed on June 25, 1938 and became effective on October 24, 1938 within that bill minimum wage was first introduced (Grossman). The bill itself was an issue because the supreme court kept turning down the bill but after countless attempts, the bill was passed a year later. President Franklin D. Roosevelt introduced that bill in hopes for fair pay as he states “all our able-bodied working men and women a fair day's pay for a fair day's work” (Roosevelt). President Roosevelt basically wanted to end the injustice and inequality many workers faced when receiving payment. Minimum wage has been and is currently an issue because of the augmentation on the cost of living and low income many workers

Social aspects before world war 2 in Australia were not equal at all. The way women were treated was hardly fair, women deserve equality as Australian citizens. Civil rights, Political rights and social rights all lacked before the war. Women did not have freedom of speech nor religion. They had limited education and only had property that was their husbands or fathers. Women didn 't even have control of their own bodies, it was illegal to have birth control, the women had to follow her husbands orders and do what ever he wanted. Getting divorced was hard to do as well as the decision was always under power of the husband (Anon, 2015; Shmoop, 2015).

The 1920s was considered a time of new technologies and the beginning of women’s rights, however as the decade came to an end it was followed by an immense economic crash. On Tuesday, 29th of October 1929, the Wall Street Stock market (New York, USA) collapsed. The prices of shares dropped dramatically causing panic selling. There were large sums of sellers, but not enough buyers leading to the lowering of prices. This marked the start of the Great Depression (ended 1939) effecting the whole western industrialised world, including Australia. In Australia companies closed overnight, unemployment rates increased, goods and services prices dropped (wool and wheat), it was a year of “shantytowns (and) endless dole queues…” (Anderson et.al, 2007). The Australian Government did little to help due to the foreign debts accumulated from the infrastructure projects in the 1920s. However, evidence showed that experiences of the Great Depression were not the same for everyone. Men suffered from the lost of jobs however, they were prioritised over women having higher chances of obtaining a job. People who lived in rural areas were more disadvantaged than urban workers. Furthermore, even when “Millions of men were thrown out of work” (Smart, 1975), those employed by the government were able to keep their job, and even improve their lives, whereas factory and other

Although these laws were designed for all of the states, Tasmania (Vans Demons Land) provided the rest of the states with crops as the soil was better to grow crops on there’s. New South Wales also can provide the country (other states) with resources because they are the most populated they have a better industrial industry which was frequently shared with the other states (after the laws and beliefs were enforced). These laws and beliefs privileged every single state although was thought to be

In order to create Australia’s image as a working man’s paradise, workers gained rights to speak. The first of these issues to be discussed are the hours of work. The balanced working time of eight-hour day movement was introduced in the mid 19th century. It was conducted by trade unions for the right of shorter working hours suitable Australia’s harsh climate. This fairer working condition of eight-hour day has succeeded by the end of the century, when the government introduced fairer laws in the late 1890s which attempted to reduce working hours and give workers Saturday afternoon off. This achievement established a national standard that was aspired by the rest of the world and formed the basis of Australia’s reputation as a ‘working man’s paradise’.

Australia 's prime minister had changed from John Curtin to Francis Forde to Ben Chifley. He realised that Australia needed a long term plan so that the people of Australia could protect and defend themselves from potential attacks. World War 2 ended in about 1945 and communists (people who wanted everyone to be equal) started popping up in Australia. Australia was under heaps of stress due to war and other issues and they needed to populate or perish.

In between the early 1900’s and late 1930’s laws regarding organized labor and laws protecting businesses were passed or declined. Different industries had different minimum wage requirements and some didn’t follow at all. When Franklin D. Roosevelt became president, one of the first things he did was sign a New Deal. The New Deal consisted of new proposed ideas and laws; many in particular pertained to labor. This was due to the happening of the Great Depression. The New Deal helped ban child labor, raise the minimum wage, and regulated the appropriate amount of hours a person should work.

A significant figure that contributed to social welfare in Australia was Caroline Chisholm. Caroline Chisholm had a concern for the welfare of immigrants, in particular young girls. This led her to set up Female Immigrants Home, which worked to ensure safe passage and assisted with settlement of over 10,000 migrants between 1838 and 1877.

The outcomes for the Indigenous Australians and how efficient were they with their methods. Firstly in 1901 the right to vote was given to Aboriginals. Secondly in 1976 it was acknowledged the original owners of Australia were Indigenous Australians through the use of labour strikes. All the rights mentioned above were achieved by the push of these leaders who used strategies to obtain the rights for their people and render Indigenous Australians and Australians equal in the eyes of the law for the first time. This shows how critical their actions were to show development in Australian civil

The Statute of Labourers was a law created by the English parliament under King Edward III in 1351 in response to a labour shortage. It was designed to suppress the labor force by prohibiting increases in wages and prohibiting the movement of workers from their home areas in search of improved conditions.

Employment law dates back to the 14th century, with the first labour legislation, the Ordinance of labourers passed in 1349 and consisted of regulations and price controls issued by King Edward 111. The purpose of the legislation was to maintain wages at rates to be fixed from time to time by the Justice of the peace. The ordinance was written in

Social policy was introduced in the early 19th Century, post war. At this time, William Beveridge introduced the idea of a Welfare State to address poverty. He released a report for social reform known as the ‘five giants’ within society: squalor, disease, ignorance, idleness and want. The welfare state brought many positive improvements in Britain and Government passed reforms to address the poverty levels, introducing “cradle to grave “support. The National Health Service was set up which gave free health care to all and laws and Acts were put in place to help the young, the old, the sick the unemployed and the working class in times of need. The five issues raised by Beveridge

The second wave of feminism began in the 60’s worldwide. This wave of feminism primarily worked towards bringing equality into the workplace as well as into education systems. It was also the wave in which women started fighting for reproductive and sexual rights (Seibert, A and Roslaniec, D, 1998). In Australia, the Whitlam Government was specifically working on furthering women’s rights and equality in wages. However, stereotypical gender roles restricted women into continuing to work low status jobs. Whether that was as a child bearer or a housewife it was low status nonetheless. The Whitlam Government attempted to further Women’s rights in 1972 by making a law