Internship Background Part 2

The area surrounding the Epping office was certainly an interesting cultural scenario. Directly juxtaposed to the public transit system was generally a lower economic class and is strongly dominated by Koreans. However, the Korean constituency was quick to fill in gaps by opening up eateries that covered all types of Asian and Australian cuisines. Further out from the train stations were higher class suburbs that were mainly populated by middle or upper class white Australians. This leads to an interesting task for the Member of Parliament for this area; we had to essentially juggle between making the densely populated Asian area and the upper class White population happy, which sometimes posed problems. The Asian area generally favored a more city-centered area with high rates of development, I.e. high rises, while the suburban folks were more inclined to reject any ideas that favored population increase. In general, corrospondence from the surrounding suburbs were usually focused around issues such as traffic and access to parks while others found issues with development and public transportation more important. Towards the end of the first day we started making what would be my schedule for the rest of the summer and I received great news that made this internship placement one of the best experiences of my life. I found out that the Epping office was the smallest and furthest of the three areas that I would be working this summer and that I would only be working here one day a week to help with data entry.

            While Parliament is sitting, which is a really complicated mix of a schedule that includes predetermined times as well as random times depending on what type of issues come to the table, I was to go once a week to help at the State Parliament House in downtown Sydney. Parliament was sitting for the first three weeks and the last week of the program. The building itself is a wonderful mix of old and new architecture and design. The old section contains vast libraries and the actual Parliament sitting rooms while the newer section was built to contain temporary working offices for the Members and their staff to research. My tasks at Parliament house were two fold; sitting in on the less important meetings and researching current issues. Meetings that I sat in for the Attorney were usually only peripherally important for his office but ones where he still needed representation. These ranged from traffic issues to public transportation meetings and I was to create a short briefing of possible important factors for our office. The traffic meeting was a bit boring but I was able to get a sense of how the relationship between people in high political offices and more layman and citizens react to each other as well as sense how the power struggle itself is examined within a body of extreme growth and political strengths. In the beginning these were really interesting in that I loved seeing the interplay of power and voice between the different agents. However, this quickly became something that I would dread as the meetings morphed into exercises of futility and bureaucracy. My other main task while Parliament was sitting was actually much more rewarding. I essentially combed the internet and other news sources for any type of policies or feedback that would have any type of relation to our office. During the sitting of Parliament, there is a section called “Question Time” in which any member of the opposing party can ask any question, without warning, to any member of the other party. These were usually aimed towards the cabinet members, of whom the Attorney General is included, and are usually used to catch the Member off guard. The task at hand, for me, was to find any news story or critisism and catch it so that a response or opinion could be drafted before the opposing party or media could use it against the Attorney.

            The staff of the Parliament Office and the last office located at Governor Macquarie Towers (GMT) are the same but differ in locations depending on whether Parliament is sitting or not. GMT is the modern office building in which each department of Parliament has working offices throughout the year. I spent the majority of my time at this office and at the Epping office. The 31^st floor of GMT is the Department of Justice, lead by my boss Greg Smith Attorney General. There are eight people working directly in this office, a couple of administrative positions and three policy advisors that are assigned different areas to research and develop. Along with the policy advisors the Attorney’s Chief of Staff and media advisor works in the office as well. When working at GMT I go through most of the staff members to see what I can do to help but usually focused on the policy advisors because I expressed that I would like to work on social issues.

            One of the first tasks that I was assigned was to research “Baby safe-haven” laws throughout the world. Baby Safe-Haven laws and Baby Hatches are public safety policies that aim to reduce the rate of infant abandonment. Australia doesn’t have a major problem with infant abandonment when compared to other countries that have implemented laws such as these; around 15 reported cases a year compared to 100’s in other areas. However, the Department of Justice had recently made some major consolidations of departments and needed some public changes to help gain popularity. A Baby Safe Haven Law of some sort was one of these possibilities. The Chief Policy Advisor, Agnes Kang, told me to take a look at policies enacted in other countries with a focus on Canada and the United Kingdom because of the similar Government structures. I first focused on instances in recent Australian news stories that would have been avoided with policies like this then started to find legislation from around the world. I finished with a brief that summarized my findings. However, the important aspect of this that I found, which was mostly looked over by the team, was the social marketing portion. Without the proper flow of information to the necessary demographics or areas of people a social program like this would not be successful.

            Some major issues that came up in Question Time while I was present related to the education of the Aboriginal population. Since occupation the relationship between the indigenous populations and the more recent immigrants has been precarious to say the least. Many of the issues are considered to be settled but there is still a massive amount of poor and uneducated individuals compared to the normal population. Indigenous people living in Sydney are generally assigned housing in the same area and these areas are usually considered to be bad parts of town. Since the first shuttle from the airport I noticed campaigns on billboards to increase awareness of illiteracy within the Aboriginal population. The connection with the indigenous population in the United States is uncanny. It was refreshing, then, when I heard the issue come up in parliament.

Internship Background Part 1

The first day of my internship came much more quickly than expected. I arrived on Thursday morning and had the weekend to get accustomed to Australian culture before the internship started on the following Monday. CAPA, the internship placement program, had set up the first weekend with a few trips and tours around Sydney. Friday we took a massive walking tour in an attempt to fight through our horrible jet lag. We were given the basics to the public transportation system in order to at least get to central station and figure out our way back to our apartments. However, at this point I was so tired and cranky that barely any of it sank in; all I wanted to do was go to sleep. Some of the observations I made, that were quite obvious, were general differences that were easy to pick up; such as driving on the other side of the road and what type of businesses were around. Cultural differences on the human level were far too complex to try and absorb in my weakened state of mind.

            On Saturday, we had an 8am wake up call, which didn’t actually matter because most of us were up by 4am or so. I loaded into the massive coach only knowing that our final destination was to the Blue Mountains surrounding Sydney. We ended up touring around the Olympic park, which was built when Sydney hosted the Olympics. The area itself looked beautiful but it also seemed like there was a lack of activity, save a few big Rugby games, in order to keep it a bustling area. The next step on the tour was to Bondi Beach…our first glimpse at the ocean. Just as a side note, I was able to discuss with our tour guide the general weather pattern in Sydney, of which I admittedly had no clue. I did understand that it was going to be winter but their perception of winter is obviously much different than that of the Midwest. Their winter ranges in temperature from about 50 to 70 degrees and is variable on a day-to-day basis. It is generally much more windy and rainy during their winter months but can still have days that reach almost up to eighty degrees, so when I left in the morning I had no clue what the rest of the day would end up being. That being said, our troop of Boilermakers rolled up to the beach and went straight knee deep in water while being awkwardly stared at by locals.  We shamelessly walked up and down the beach for about an hour while the bundled up locals sat back thinking it was a chilly day. Continuing our tour north we were able to stop in a little mountain town where I started to get a feel of ordering food and communicating on a business level. Not to mention, I was able to dig into one of Australia’s famous meat pies…a spicy meat filled pie topped with mashed peas and potatoes, drizzled with delicious gravy. Once we arrived at the Blue Mountains I realized how crucial that lunch would be as I descended onto the hiking path for the next few hours. After the long day of hiking the picturesque mountain range began to darken as the sun set, which was around 5pm and didn’t help with the jet lag. The bus ride home gave me the opportunity to check out an Australian made and based film. The movie was called Red Dog and supplied me with ample questions to ask any Australians that I met, namely a slew of phrases that I couldn’t remotely understand.

            Sunday was the first day I was totally free; I used this time to, quite literally, get lost around the city. I was able to get a feel for the scope and area surrounding my apartment as well as go on a “dry run” to my internship site. I was able to successfully go from Buses to Trains and back again without being totally helpless, which was a surprise. I spent the rest of the day preparing for, what CAPA called, my interview for my internship. However, the next day was never actually an interview, rather just my first day of work.

            Just for some background, I had no clue at all what my internship was going to entail. All that I knew was that I was working in the office of the Attorney General and member of Parliament Greg Smith. When I arrived, after about an hour total commute, I was actually fairly unimpressed with the area and the office in general. There were only two people working in the small office area; Zorica, my site supervisor, and Scott. Zorica started by giving me a quick tour of the office and the larger office complex while Scott and I chatted about general Australian culture. I quickly started to pick up the “laid back” work attitude that I was told to expect while sipping on tea and biscuits in the break room. The first day was mainly filled with introductions and an attempt by Zorica and Scott to get me up to speed on the workings of Australian politics. However, an interesting opportunity came up a couple hours into my internship where I was able to sit in on a “fire safety” meeting. I was forewarned that it would be a bit boring however I found it interesting because I was still keen on observing how people communicated with each other. It was essentially a boardroom filled with representatives from each office within the complex and was filled with discussions regarding past fire safety techniques and such. Not long after that I was introduced to a few of the tasks that were to fill up my time over the next several weeks. In this office, the Epping branch, my main tasks were to update data sheets of constituent correspondences with the office; essentially excel sheet updates. I read many of the letters and inquiries that members of the community write and attempt to classify and organize them to a point that I could write letters of response that cover more than just one specific query. 

Marketing

            One of my favorite things about travelling is observing the different marketing campaigns whether I’m comparing them to their counterparts in the American scene or just looking at original marketing campaigns it is always enjoyable.

            The first thing I noticed was the vulgarity within the commercials and billboards. It goes hand in hand with the prevalence of swearing in the workplace and culture as a whole. Advertisements were bold to a degree I was not used too. Mostly loud and in your face with highly Aussie themes. A good example of this is a chip commercial that highlights the beach and grill life of many shoreline Aussies. Along with this, nudity is visible in many commercials on regular cable which is all but absence on American television.

            Many of the major brands that are globalized have an interesting take on multicultural advertisements. Popular brand spokespeople, like Progressive insurance for example, have Australian doppelgangers. They incorporate some of the major themes or characteristics from the American version and make it a bit more Aussie friendly.

            Social marketing campaigns were also something that I noticed off the bat. A major one, as I have discussed before, is the need for awareness about the illiteracy of the Aboriginal population. Throughout the public transportation and television commercials there are examples of campaigns such as this. A campaign that I actually got to do some work on through the Attorney General’s Office was the anti-graffiti initiatives. This involved billboards and ads to enlighten people about an anti-graffiti day that got people together to paint over old graffiti in an effort to dissuade people from continuing the practice. 

Aboriginal Population

I purposefully left out the indigenous, aboriginal population from the demographics section because it seems that Australians have an entirely different perception of this group of people than other cultures. From what I have seen and heard I see their stance towards the aboriginal population as largely hypocritical. It appears that, although they are critical of the race issues within the US, people generally have a negative attitude towards this segment of the population. I was surprised that I didn’t hear anything at all about aboriginals for about a week into my trip. I had to go out of my way to ask a few friends and coworkers how they felt. My initial shock came when I learned about how few aboriginal individuals there are around Sydney and the larger cities in general. Much like the US there are areas that act somewhat like Native American reservations where the majority of the population lives. Aboriginals are, from what I observed in my short time in Australia, the most marginalized group of people.

            Aboriginals within the city live in poor and badly maintained parts of the city in building structures that resemble projects. I was literally told on several occasions specific stops to NEVER get off on; being warned that Aboriginals will “sick dogs and throw chicken bones at you”. In actuality, crime rates were higher within those areas but it seems that people were exaggerating a bit about the prevalence of problems. Within my position in the government I saw direct acts to help with the advancement of the Aboriginal population. Since 1972 there have been initiatives to help motivate individuals as well as modify schools and programs in order to increase the prevalence of high school graduation in the population. One of the programs that stands out was removing fences from around the school because of the negative connotation it has in the Aboriginal culture. Other measures that rewarded families monetarily were also successful.

            Towards the end of the trip there was a week set aside to raise awareness about issues within the Aboriginal population as well as the Torres Strait Islanders. Venues around Sydney held cultural awareness shows and guest lecturers to help reveal inherent issues with policies and procedures that are held in Australia. I feel a sense that people want to start making a difference with policies; even through my work I noticed a trend in correspondence towards wanting to help these people. I think, in general, people are starting to realize that their government has the means to make a difference in the lives of the original habitants and will eventually force, by popular demand, a change.

Demographics

Frankly, I had done very little previous research into the people of Sydney, or Australia as a whole, so I had no idea what to expect when it came to demographics. A major issue that I had at first was determining what was a result of being in a big city and what was uniquely “Sydney” when it came to race and other cultures. Walking around there is certainly a difference between big American cities and the people in Sydney. One of the first things I noticed was the lack of African people around the city compared with cities like Chicago or New York. African Americans often dominate or at least play a large part in the construction of populations around the United States. Instead, there is a very large Asian population. Certain areas of the city resemble China-town but are at least ten times the size. Almost all sectors of the Asian population have large representation around Sydney. The area that I worked was largely made up of individuals of Korean decent while other areas are largely Japanese or Chinese.

Race, and its perception, is a subject that I have always been interested in; a direct result of growing up around Detroit where race is always a major issue. So, when discussing, mostly informally, with coworkers and Australian friends I often tried to steer the conversation into this subject. What I found out was very interesting. The first thing many individuals said, including a fairly prestigious Government official, was their opinions about Americans and race. It was mentioned that the first thing that we see about a person is the color of their skin and that it is engrained within our society and population while Australians seem to transcend this. An American will see a black man and immediately identify him as black while an Aussie would just see him as a man. When thinking about why this would be the case there are many factors to ponder. Our country has had racial issues for hundreds of years and it is really our generation that is seeing some of the first fairly equal circumstances; ignoring, of course, the arguments toward structural poverty for minorities. Australia, being such a young country, was much more concerned with setting up a strong population and economic base. Their populations are strongly set by immigration from surrounding areas and are quite diverse. Making me wonder why America is generally labeled as a melting pot and Australia is generally perceived to be filled with blonde, white surfers. 

Economy

The economy of Sydney was one of the first major differences I noticed between here and big cities within the US. It’s not that there is a total void of chain stores and restaurants, they do exists, but in way lesser numbers. McDonalds (Maccas), Subways, and Starbucks all stood out to me but were much fewer and far between. This leaves a vacuum for smaller businesses to thrive. Instead of people going to get fast food breakfast (Brekky) on a regular basis there is a network of smaller and, usually, family owned cafes. This was really refreshing to me given that the opposite is happening in many places around the United States; a Wal-Mart or other super center opens up and drives local, family owned businesses out of town. It allows for a more diverse set of choices and attempts to keep the, generally very high Sydney, food prices at a more competitive level. However, even as I write, the first couple Costcos and Wal-Marts are making their way into the Australian marketplace. Along with this, McDonalds and Hungry Jacks (Burger King) are driving their prices down and allowing people to charge with no minimum. Just as an aside, I had a hard time getting used to the “cash culture” that is Australia. It seems that no one, at least in my age group, carries cash around in the States. In Australia, however, using a charge card is generally not the norm; there are usually percentage taxes added to the bill and large minimums to even use a card.

On the larger side of the economic status, there are jobs! People aren’t worried about making a living and it doesn’t seem to permeate every decision that individuals make. In the States it seems that, increasingly, choices are made (have to be made) solely on getting a job. You can’t study your passion, move where you want, or be what you want to be. You have to get that income. In Australia Uni isn’t universal; people chose to go to Uni if there family is a bit more affluent or if they have a specific career path in mind that requires Uni study…NOT because they have to in order to score a job that will support them and their family. One can successfully get through high school and maybe a short trade or skill school and land a job that will allow for a comfortable lifestyle. The minimum wage in New South Wales is around 20 dollars an hour. This is astronomical compared to the almost 8 dollar an hour minimum wage in the States. That being said, everything is way more expensive around Sydney. This is a direct product of Sydney being a major city, like the price hikes in New York City and Chicago, but also that the wages are set at a higher level, as we see with the minimum wage. It makes it much harder for us American Uni students to come and have a good time; the beers were almost $19 for a six pack!

Vivid Lights

Much like most CAPA students we jumped at the opportunity to see anything free in Sydney. The Vivid lights festival was listed as one of these free events. After a chilly, but satisfying, day relaxing at Manly Beach across the harbor we took the night ferry back to Circular Quay. The picturesque ferry wharf is surrounded by the Sydney Opera house and customs house. As the ferry approached the harbor we immediately braved the cold and windy night to get a good view towards the front of the vessel. Through the dim haze created by the ever-present Sydney fog, the gorgeous skyline crept into visibility revealing our first glimpse of the light show. There was almost too much to see. The skyscrapers were merely peripheral entertainment compared to the main light shows on the Opera house, Museum of Contemporary Art, and the old Customs house.  Once our ferry drifted back into the port we took it upon ourselves to trek around the course of Vivid’s attractions.

In order to see everything, our group started at the opera house and wandered around in awe of all the different people and sites. At first glance the opera house seemed fairly bland, with a few different patterns being projected onto its surface. However, this perception quickly changed as the light show progressed in intensity. Sounds of crackling and music started coming seemingly from nowhere as the surface was entirely recreated using just lights; cracking and breaking down while being virtually rebuilt in front of our eyes. After a brief pause, thinking that the opera house portion was over, the massive representations of amazingly lifelike human forms appeared. They silently danced and rolled across the surface creating a surreal atmosphere for the entire audience. Continuing to the Customs House the show continued to keep our CAPA group in awe.  Projected onto the archaic, rough surface was a vibrantly clear city center. Cars, trains, and busses were set into motion along the columns while light-hearted music played amongst the crowd. Onlookers poured in from all corners of Sydney. Continuing along the water the interactive attractions became the center of attention. A giant Tic-tac-toe board was set up surrounded by bike-generated light fixtures inundated with young tourists.

The pinnacle of Vivid, however, was the Museum of Contemporary Art.  The outer surface of the museum was multifaceted. One side consisted of a musically themed videogame where player’s motions are projected onto the façade. At the forefront of the museum the lights cultivated dreamlike patterns in front of our eyes. Psychedelic representations of the human head exploded with distorted colors. Later in the show a biker, encompassed with colors beyond imagination, put the spectators into a trance. Once pulled away from the hypnotic images we continued our adventure around the bay. At this point many people in the group dispersed but the sights didn’t stop. Various mini-light shows kept us entertained until the evident Sydney weather forced us into submission. Without a doubt, CAPA’s organization and encouragement to attend this event led to one of our best nights in Sydney thus far.