Australian Politics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 1

Australian Politics - Essay Example ournal articles that deal with the issues of work hours, working on weekends, fall in birth rates, difficulties faced by the children of working mothers, etc. Due to the paucity of time and space, it has not been possible to explore this subject at a much greater depth, nevertheless, the main contentious issues have been addressed. This research endeavours to establish that despite the government’s various pieces of legislation in respect of work place rights, the situation has not shown much improvement. In this context, the available literature on this topic had been perused. Further, a reference had been made to journal and newspaper articles, government documents, etc. The stance of the government is that the situation has improved considerably, whereas the reality is otherwise and reveals that the situation is going from bad to worse. If the situation is not addressed on a war footing, then there could be a severe reduction in Australia’s population. The need of the hour is to strictly implement the extant legislation. Over a period of thirty years, Australia has obtained the dubious distinction of being the only country with high incomes, where working hours are not only very long but also where work takes place during nights and on weekends. This has had a very serious impact on the family life of Australians. The health of many employees has been adversely affected due to this work culture. Family relations are at an all time low and children have to deal with bad tempered parents whose decisions are unpredictable (Wade, 2007). Such extreme working hours has become universal and twenty percent of the workforce work for at least fifty hours a week. Further, the number of employees who are compelled to work on weekends is around thirty percent and two million people work on Sundays. There is no system of compensation for these extra hours of work on the weekends (Wade, 2007). The three decade old era of material prosperity in Australia, has a dismal