PHIX 137 FINAL ASSIGNMENT, Semester 1 2019
Due: 11.59pm, Sunday 9th of June (Week 13).
Length: 1500-2000 words (see below for suggested breakdown),plus standardisations. This is already a broad word range, so don’t go under or over it.
Submit via Turnitin, in iLearn
Worth: 35%
Task: Read and respond as requested to the Scenario below
Notes:
• a worked example of a similar task is available in iLearn as a sample.
• A rubric will be available through Turnitin
Scenario - Public Response Research
Context Statement
Social tensions are rising in your local area, in response to recent clashes over whether celebrations should be held to mark Australia Day on January 26, in your area and more generally. You are employed by a local councillor, Harriet Lee, who has been asked to chair a meeting of community groups to discuss the issue. It has been hoped that this would be a peaceful and constructive meeting, and it is anticipated that most who attend will do so in good faith, but recently, two local lobby groups on opposing sides of this debate (‘Change for our future’ and ‘Pride in Australia’) have been distributing leaflets in the area and agitating on social media to push for protests at the meeting, encouraging their supporters to engage in demonstrations to disrupt proceedings and prevent their opponents from speaking. Both groups have been distributing their arguments widely, and Lee is concerned
that they appear unwilling to consider their opponents’ perspectives.
Your Task
You have been asked by Councillor Lee to analyse the arguments these groups are presenting in the leaflets they have been distributing, and provide her with a clear understanding of their claims, and guidance on how it would be best to respond to facilitate a constructive and respectful discussion.
Resources : - You have been provided with a dossier of relevant material (the leaflets are below, others are available in iLearn). It contains:
• A copy of the ‘Change for our future’ leaflet
• A copy of ‘Pride in Australia’ leaflet
• A copy of recent polls cited in their arguments in support of their positions
• A collection of possibly useful material gathered by one of our junior researchers ( Feel free to use other materials, if you wish, but this should be enough to give you some relevant background – You should mainly be focussing on the arguments contained in the leaflets).
What you need to provide
Councillor Lee thinks this meeting may have significant consequences for the peace of the community, and wants as much supporting information as possible. What she really wants from you is to know what the strengths and weaknesses of each side’s arguments are. She is keen to know if there are any fallacious arguments or misleading rhetoric that she might point out to counter the claims made in the leaflets. She is also interested in their use of the surveys they cite. On the more positive side, she is looking to see if there is any common ground between the opposing sides, and whether there is any way she can encourage a constructive and respectful debate, to move forward as a community.
With all that in mind, then, here's what you need to deliver to Councillor Lee:
• A standardisation of the argument used in the ‘Change for our future’ leaflet.
• A standardisation of the argument used in the ‘Pride in Australia’ leaflet.
• An analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the arguments, as you've standardised them. (approx. 600-850 words on each argument). You should consider the strength of the inferences, any fallacies, their use of the polls they cite and the authors’ use of language and rhetoric.
• A one page (approx. 300 word) -recommendation- briefing. What points should Councillor Lee emphasise in her response to the arguments? What points should she make the focus of her own positive response at the meeting? How can she best encourage a respectful and constructive debate?
(Note that the suggested breakdown of words for each section is only a suggestion, but you should write 1500-2000 words overall, not including your standardisations).
LEAFLET 1 – distributed by Change for our Future
IT’S TIME FOR CHANGE!
Each year dawns with a cry from across the nation for a new national day of celebration, and yet until now our so-called leaders have never responded to the public will. We’ve now reached a point, though, that the people will no longer be silenced. We need to release ourselves from the shackles of our racist past and give up on “Australia Day”, finding instead a new, unifying day of national celebration.
Why do we need this change so desperately?
For a start, many Australians find the celebration of January 26 deeply offensive. For many Indigenous Australians, the celebration of the British invasion is a painful reminder of Australia’s tainted history and the ongoing lack of recognition afforded to the original owners of this land. This view is also widely shared by other Australians, including one Socialist Alliance councillor in Melbourne who recently likened the celebration of January 26 to a celebration of the Nazi Holocaust, in defence of her own council’s rejection of these outdated practices.
January 26 is also irrelevant to who we are now as a nation. Australia has a broad multicultural population, our citizens having come to Australia from all points of the globe, so British settlement is simply irrelevant to modern Australia.
It has also become clear that the celebration of January 26 has no significant popular backing. Recent research has shown that support for that day as our national holiday is now minimal. A nationwide representative poll conducted by Research Now and released in January by the Australia Institute found that most people don’t even know what January 26 commemorates, and they just don’t care.
So why do we continue with this inappropriate celebration, favoured only by the racist and the ignorant? It’s offensive, irrelevant and unpopular and it’s holding us back as a nation.
LEAFLET 2 – distributed by ‘Pride in Australia’
PRIDE IN AUSTRALIA, PRIDE IN AUSTRALIA DAY
Fellow Australians, we urge you to be strong and keep faith in Australia Day, and maintain the proud tradition of our national day of celebration.
If you listened to the left-leaning media outlets (and we all know that means most of them), you’d think that there was widespread support for forsaking our proud national day, Australia Day, but recent research reveals the truth. Support for change is fake news, popularised by a noisy minority who are intent on undermining our national identity and culture.
What evidence is there of this leftist conspiracy, you might ask? A recent nation-wide survey released by the Institute for Public Affairs, found that 70% of our fellow Australians want those pushing for change to stop interfering and leave Australia Day exactly as it is. The fact that the left keep pushing for change as though it had popular support just shows that these professional trouble-makers are out of touch with real Australians, and are trying to change our great nation for their own purposes, to meet their own agendas.
And make no mistake, once they have their way on Australia Day, this won’t be the end of it. Soon we’ll be unable to commemorate ANZAC Day, unable to salute the Australian flag, unable to publicly identify ourselves as Australians without fear of causing offence and being called bigots. The evidence that this is where we’re heading is clear, since we’ve already started seeing similar groups to those complaining about Australia Day trying to change the flag, and disrespecting ANZAC Day.
Something else you may not have considered is that this isn’t really just about changing our national holiday – It’s about terminating it! No-one agitating for change has any clear ideas about when we should hold Australia Day. One recent survey released by the leftist radicals at the Australia Institute made all sorts of clueless suggestions about what day might be appropriate. One of the suggestions was “The day we became a Republic” as a good day to for our national holiday! Wake up, people! We’re not a Republic! What this means is that if we lose January 26, we lose our national holiday altogether. Most of the people calling for change probably don’t have jobs anyway, but don’t those of us who are working for the good of our nation deserve a day off to celebrate Australia?
We all want what’s best for the unity of Australia. Don’t be afraid to stand up to the politically correct elite: It’s time to end this divisive debate and go back to celebrating Australia Day proudly like our fathers and forefathers did.