Percentage of Aboriginal Australians in Parliament or Government Employment?

Question

I am wondering why it appears to Americans that Australians in general think Senator Obama has no chance of winning U.S. Presidency.

What is the racial or ethnic breakdown of Australian parliament? Also, percentage of women in parliament?

If there is something you do not like about how I have asked this, fire away. Won't be the first incoming for me. Honest question, though.

Do Australians think a senior, WASP & southern background American would not vote for Obama? How about a person with bear avatar?

Does race matter more there or here?

I thought it was becoming a non-issue most everywhere.

Answer 1

I have not been following the US campaign very closely but it looks like Senator Obama or Senator Clinton will be the Democratic nominees for P and VP.  I'd view either as Pres with equanimity.  However there is a Republican candidate and judging by the Americans on a Yahoo group I'm in, they have not yet had enough of Republicans.  You could be looking at another Republican presidency, and I don't think it has much to do with the fact that Senators Obama and Clinton are not male and white.  

I'm pretty sure that the division between donkeys and elephants is about even in the USA just as it is between Labor and Liberal here, so a slight change in voter sentiment close to an election can tip things either way.  In Australia it's possible to win federal government of 52% or thereabouts of the total. vote.    

Didn't Sen. Obama win a primary in a south eastern state recently?  

I would not have a clue about the ethnic breakdown of the Australian federal or state parliaments.  I'm sure there would be a list of members for each state, territory and the federal parliament online and you might get some idea of their background from their surnames.  You'll find Scots, English, Irish, Greek and Italian names and maybe one of two Chinese as well.  

http://www.aph.gov.au/house/members/inde...

http://www.aph.gov.au/Senate/index.htm

Other parliaments are in the states, Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia, Western Australia.  These parliaments are called Legislative Assemblies and Legislative Councils.  Queensland abolished its Legislative Council in the 1910s.   There are assemblies for the Northern Territory and Australian Capital Territory too.

Almost forty years ago Queensland, supposedly the most backward and racist state in Australia returned the first Aboriginal Senator to the Federal parliament.  That was Senator Neville Bonner who was in the more conservative of the two main parties.  

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neville_Bon...

People noticed then, but I don't know whether they particularly notice now.  

How's the US House of Reps and Senate look for Afro-Americans and Latin Americans? Must be a few.  What about the Californian and Texas state houses?

Answer 2

I don't think Americans or Australians in general think that. I think most wouldn't even care. Aussie people in the last election voted from a whats in it for me point. And they got who they got.. lol

Americans well I don't know more then 20 or so. They all seem nice and don't mind Obama at all. They do mind that women.. what ever her name is

Australia has different ethnic groups represented. But its not always as easy as it sounds. Indigenous aussies are beautiful people. But not many of them are to passionate about polotics.

The person just under the Prime Minister of Australia is a women..

It a thing of the past to worry about such things.

Everyone is equal. God loves us all..

Personaly I would expect southern background people to vote for conservitive. But you know what its a free contry and people can do and think what they like./

smiles

Answer 3

The Australian parliament is fairly representative of the Australian people, both politically and ethnically.  Remember statistically Aboriginal voters are only 1 or 2% of the total population.  That's about 400,000 people out of 20 million at even an exaggerated guess.  There have been Aboriginal politicians at all levels of government (state and federal) before.  It would be rare to see more than one in a given parliament though.   Even so the ones that have made it have often been an integral part of the process in all kinds of matters, not necessarily in indigenous matters.  Australia is such a multicultural nation these days (since the 1950s in fact)  that issues of ethnicity are largely irrelevent except to overseas media.  Aboriginal voters have a vocal lobby group that pushes their affairs in the national spotllight fairly regularly.  It is not as if they can be ignored like the bad old days of the 1930s and earlier.

Aboriginals by the way have a better percentage of take up in government employment.  Australia has very strict anti discrimination laws.  Governments of Australia have to have an employee makeup that reflects the general population.  It is not uncommon to see Aboriginal and Torres Strait islanders at various levels of the beaurocracy.

You might have to explain what you mean by WASP and Bear Avatar, these are not familiar terms to Australians.

I think Australia is rather surprised that America has an African American and a Woman as the Democrat options for president.   America for us has a very long history of voting in yuppie white males into the presidency.   It is quite refreshing for us to see America finally recognising the value of the other 50% of possible presidential nominees.  Australia for instance has had Women premiers (state level party leaders) for many years.  Queensland currently has a female premier.  Both Victoria and Western Australia have women premiers in the past.   Julia Gillard is the current deputy prime minister in the federal parliament.  When Kevin Rudd (our Prime Minister) is overseas or indisposed the she becomes our acting prime minister.   I don't think it is impossible to get an Aboriginal prime minister either.  I do think that the low numbers of Aboriginals in parliament would preclude that however.

Race has largely been irrelevant here since multiculturalism came into play back in the 50s.  With most of the worlds cultures represented here nobody really cares about race anymore.  Everyone marries anyone they want.  It is not uncommon for families to trace their lineage through 7 or more different ethnicity's and or countries.  It only seems to be the world media that is hyper sensitive to any race issues happening in Australia.  Most of those news organisation are pretty clueless about what is happening at street level anyhow.  They just recite what newspapers spit out, and those are owned by just 2 people.  They have their own agenda and that,s not necessarily in favour of Aboriginal interests.

Race is probably more an issue in America than it is here, simply because there is a higher percentage of different ethnicities and interest groups fighting it out for their agendas.    Our smaller and sparsely distributed population means that for most Australians we have other things to worry about.