Power: Final Product

Decision Makers…

Driving Question: Does the Australian system of democracy find effective

solutions for the challenges facing our society?
One of the key objectives of modern liberal democracy is to spread power evenly through different
sectors and levels of a society. In Australia this can be seen in the different levels of government and
the range of interest groups representing significant economic, political and social interests in our
society. These groups need to collaborate to reach workable solutions for the issues that the
Australian community needs to resolve.

Task:

As a class we will look at how the government and other groups worked to solve the problems of the
rising cost of living. The class will work to find a workable solution to this issue.

Divide into six groups, each group will be given a specific sector to represent, you will need to
conduct research into the position of the group about the issue, which the group will then present.

Section 1:

Divide into six groups who will represent the following political groups in Australian society: the
Federal Government, the State Government, Local government, an appropriate community interest
group (for example, if The Voice is chosen, an Indigenous group is appropriate), a business peak
body, and a media group. Each of these groups will prepare a position paper that reflects an
understanding of the position of the group’s organisation. The groups then need to explain their
position to the rest of the class. The presentation will also be submitted.
Section 2:

Students form new groups that have a representative from each of the previous groups (Federal,
State, Business, NGOs etc). As a group of experts from these sectors they need to figure out a
solution that assists the greatest number of people and groups in Australia through the crisis or
issues that has been identified by the class. Each group needs to explain their solution and why they
made the decisions that they did. They need to present and submit a written copy of their solution.
The class will vote on what they think is the most effective solution.

Assessment:

The assessment for this task will consist of the following elements:

1. A presentation outlining the perspective and objectives of the group that they represent in
relation to the issue. The group also submits a hard copy of their presentation.
Presentation will be 5 minutes.
Submit a copy of any slides or other material used to support presentation.
2. A group report by the expert group outlining the solution to the issue that they have
developed and explaining why they have made the decisions that they have made and how
effective or not they think their solution will be.
This report needs to be presented to the class and submitted as a hard copy.
(300 – 500 words)
3. A reflection discussing how well both groups the student was involved with worked, what
could be changed next time and a discussion about how effective they thought the process
was at providing a solution to the chosen issue.
Individual task: 200 words.