Immigration

1. According to international refugee law, a refugee is someone who seeks refuge in a foreign country because of war and violence, or out of fear of persecution. The United States recognizes persecution "on account of race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or membership in a particular social group" as grounds for seeking asylum. Until a request for refuge has been accepted, the person is referred to as an asylum seeker. Only after the recognition of the asylum seeker's protection needs, he or she is officially referred to as a refugee and enjoys refugee status, which carries certain rights and obligations according to the legislation of the receiving country.


2. People have many reasons to leave their country to come to Australia such as War, Famine, Political Opinion, Racism and Religion.


3. A person will only be granted Asylum after recognition of their protection needs which carries certain rights and obligations.


4. Most Asylum Seekers that come to Australia come from countries such as Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Iran, Indonesia & Malaysia.


Video Questions


1. The Deal with Malaysia states that Australia will send 800 Asylum Seekers to Malaysia in exchange for 4000 Genuine Refugees who's cases have been verified by the United Nations Refugee Agency.


2. The deal states that they will be treated with dignity and respect by the Malaysia Security Forces and they will have human rights protected. Australia will be covering the costs of health and education expenses. They will also have the right to work.


3. Malaysian Asylum Seekers are often rounded up and put into detention camps. They also face harsh punishments such as caning and breaches of Human Rights.


4. Yes, Children are being sent to Malaysia but they have access to health and education sources.


5. The 500+ people will now be processed in Australia rather than overseas in places such as Papua New Guinea as was previously announced.


6. Refugee Advocates worry that there is no way that the Australian Government can guarantee that Human Rights won't be breached for the Asylum Seekers in Malaysia.


7. The Goal of this swap program is to receive genuine refugees while giving Asylum Seekers to countries with much less of an Asylum Seeker Problem.


8. I don't think it will work because I agree with the fact that the Gillard Government has no way of guaranteeing that Human Rights will not be breached in Malaysia and that the program will get too out of hand for the Australian Government to handle.

Australia as a Nuclear Target

1. Kevin Rudd holds the position of Minister of Foreign Affairs in the Australian Government. He is responsible for overseeing the International Diplomacy of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

2. Mr Rudd's concern is that Australia could be under direct threat from long range North Korean nuclear weapons such as the long range Taepodong-2 Missile and that North Korea has become 'detached from reality'

3. Mr Rudd expressed his concerns while attending the ASEAN Regional Forum, which is being attended by all ASEAN Member Nations along with the United States.

4. The Attack and Sinking of the South Korean frigate "Cheonan", the shelling of Yeonpyeong and the deliberate disobeyment of United Nations sanctions on uranium enrichment have Kevin Rudd alarmed and have made the region very unstable at this moment in time.

5. According to Mr Rudd, the North Korean Uranium Weaponisation Program is designed to put Nuclear Warheads on long range missiles and this is a direct threat to Australia. In particular, the long range Taepodong-2 Missile is being developed to have a range of over 14,000km however recent tests of the missile into the Sea of Japan have been unsuccessful.

6. Mr Rudd is trying to show that Australia is very concerned about the issues on the Korean Peninsula and he is trying to encourage high level talks between South Korea and North Korea. He is also trying to put Australia in a major player position in the conflict.Mr Rudd is also attempting to help build further our relationships with key allies such as the United States, who are against North Korea.

7. This relates greatly to Australia's relationship with its allies because it is a key issue in the Asia-Pacific region and if Australia supports South Korea, then it has the support of the United States, our major ally. If Australia is shown to be committed to the unification of Korea, then it looks good in the eyes of its allies.

Australian Aid

Foreign Aid Review:

• Economic Growth is the key to overcoming long term aid.
• In the past 5 years, Australia's aid budget has doubled, and will double again in the next 5 years.
• Australia will be spending $8 Billion on foreign aid in 2015.
• Minister of Foreign Affairs, Kevin Rudd, commissioned a review of Australia's overseas aid budget.
• The Report does not really cover why the budget is growing so fast.
• Many people think the answer is obvious, helping people in need.
• Emergency Aid only makes up for 7% of the budget.
• 1 Billion people still live on less than USD $1.25 a day.
• In 1981, 54% of the World's population lived in poverty, by 2005 this had fallen 25% and in 2015 it will be less than 15%.
• Economic Growth of developing countries is the key to overcoming poverty, not foreign aid.
• The developing world has now overtaken the developed world in terms of economic output.
• Since 1990, massive economic growth in China has lifted over 500 Million people out of poverty.
• Australia's Aid program to PNG has been one of the largest and most innovative aid programs but there has been no improvement in poverty levels since independence in1975.
• Many people say that Australia is only contributing to foreign aid because it is about serving Australia's national interests. 
• People also say that sending extra aid to Africa and the Caribbean is all about our bid for a place on the UN Security Council. People also say that our participation in Afghanistan is just about impressing Washington.

Australia is giving more aid because of a combination of reasons, I think because they do generally care about  poverty and economic growth of developing countries but I also think it is in a large part because of the national interests of the country and impressing other countries such as the United States and the European Union.I think the benefits of such a policy are for the developing countries, because Australia is contributing a large amount of money to foreign aid but it also helps the international image of Australia, because it shows us as a kind, giving nation.

Thursday 5/5/2011: Mapping

1. There is a high pressure system currently stalled over south-eastern Australia, this is causing dry conditions in the south-eastern areas of the country, in cities including Adelaide, Sydney and Melbourne.

2. The Air Pressure in the Capital Cities for the next 4 days is:

Sydney: 1016, 1020, 1016, 1017.
Melbourne: 1026, 1027, 1018, 1018.
Adelaide: 1030, 1027, 1020, 1018.
Canberra: 1024, 1027, 1016, 1016.
Brisbane: 1016, 1018, 1016, 1017.
Hobart: 1020, 1023, 1016, 1016.
Perth: 1024, 1024, 1024, 1016.
Darwin:1012, 1012, 1012, 1008.

3. The contour interval is 6 meters, or 20 Feet.

4. The scale of the map is 2cm = 1 mile, or 2cm = 1.6km.

5. The Gradient of the slope is 6.096.

Year 10: Urban Sprawl or Consolidation: Jordan Springs

1. Jordan Springs is a very good example of Urban Sprawl because it demonstrates a perfect example of spread out low density housing which is extending away from a city centre which in this case it is on the very outskirts of Sydney however the closest CBD to Jordan Springs is Penrith, which is located about 7km away.

2. I think the development is very positive for the surrounding area of Penrith, it is providing housing for over 6000 people, it is also creating over 5000 new jobs, a new shopping centre, infrastructure, two lakes, public parks and sports oval. It is not really positive for Sydney however, because not many people who work in Sydney will take an interest because it is over 50km from the Sydney CBD, and the journey will take 1 hour in no traffic, but with the consistently bad Sydney Traffic the journey from Jordan Springs to central Sydney could take up to 2 Hours.

Year 10: Urban Renew and Decay

Aesthetics: the sense of what people consider beautiful or culturally appropriate, varying from folk group to folk group and individual to individual.

Safety: the state of being certain that adverse effects will not be caused by some agent under defined conditions; "insure the safety of the children"; "the reciprocal of safety is risk. Safety can also be referred to as something that is designed for a certain safety perspective or purpose, such as earthquake-proof buildings and buildings built on high ground to prevent attack.

Slums: A household that lacks any one of the following five elements: access to sufficient amounts of water for family use at an affordable price, without being subject to extreme effort; access to improved sanitation, either in the form of a private toilet or a public toilet shared with a reasonable.

Decay: The process or result of being gradually decomposed; A deterioration of condition; To deteriorate, to get worse, to lose strength or health, to decline in quality; To rot, to go bad. Urban decay is a process by which a city, or a part of a city, falls into a state of disrepair and neglect. It is characterized by depopulation, economic restructuring, property abandonment, high unemployment, fragmented families, political disenfranchisement, crime, and desolate urban landscapes.

Urban Renewal: Urban Renewal  (similar to urban regeneration in British English) is a program of land redevelopment in areas of moderate to high density urban land use. It is also the clearing and rebuilding and redevelopment of urban slums.

 

Transport: Transport or transportation is the movement of people and goods from one location to another. Transport is performed by modes, such as air, rail, road, water, cable, pipeline and space. The field can be divided into infrastructure, vehicles, and operations.

 Suburbanization: In some countries, declining satisfaction with the urban environment is held to blame for continuing migration to smaller towns and rural areas . Successful urban planning supported Regional planning can bring benefits to a much larger hinterland or city region and help to reduce both congestion along transport routes and the wastage of energy implied by excessive commuting.

Environmental Factors: Environmental protection and conservation are of utmost importance to many planning systems across the world. Not only are the specific effects of development to be mitigated, but attempts are made to minimize the overall effect of development on the local and global environment. This is commonly done through the assessment of Sustainable urban infrastructure and microclimate. In Europe this process is known as a Sustainability Appraisal.

Light & Sound: The urban canyon effect is a colloquial, non-scientific term referring to street space bordered by very high buildings. This type of environment may shade the sidewalk level from direct sunlight during most daylight hours. While an oft-decried phenomenon, it is rare except in very dense, hyper-tall urban environments, such as those found in Lower and Midtown Manhattan, Chicago's Loop and Kowloon in Hong Kong.

7.6 The Tweed River Entrance Sand Bypassing Project

1. It became necessary to extend the breakwaters because the sand from the adjacent beaches was pouring into the river channel, which was making it extremely unsafe for boats and other watercraft to navigate the river entrance.

2. It would have a positive and negative effect. The beaches south of the breakwaters would benefit from the breakwater extending out into the ocean because the sand would build up against it, which would strengthen the sand amount on the beach, but the northern beaches would not benefit at all because of the breakwater. The breakwater would obstruct the sand from reaching the northern beaches and they would have a lot less sand than the southern beaches.

3. The Tweed river became unsafe to shipping because of the sand bars that were forming in the river entrance. This made it unsafe to ships to pass through here because they ran the risk of running aground or piercing their hulls.Longshore Drift is the natural process responsible for this, as the sand was pushing north and forming in the mouth of the river.

4. The dredging of the river was only a shot term solution because mainly the cost. Over the next 25 years it will cost over $50 Million to dredge regularly and the breakwaters should do a good job of keeping the sand out of the river, which will eliminate the need for dredging, or at least decrease the cost of it significantly.

5. The TRESBP Project replaces the natural process of Longshore Drift because it is an obstruction to the natural processes of Longshore Drift. The two breakwaters do not allow the water to travel along the coast, so sand will build up against the southern breakwater and at the northern end of the beach above the northern breakwater.

6. I believe that the Tweed River Entrance Sand Bypassing Project was a very good idea and it has been extremely successful, leading to it being one of the most successful coastal management strategies in Australia. I think that excellent planning has gone into the project which has prevented sand building up into the Tweed River Entrance and along with the dredging in the mouth of the river, the process of Longshore Drift has been disrupted in the entrance of the river and this has allowed it to now be safe for marine craft to navigate the entrance and the bar of the river.

7.

 

 8. Since 1962, the distance the water has traveled up the beach is the same, however the distance up the beach on the right side has changed significantly.

9. The length of the breakwater was 100m.