Tax systems, democracy, and human rights

This sequence is intended as a framework to be modified and adapted by teachers to suit the needs of a class group. The activity was written for students in Stage 5, however it can be modified to suit the needs of Stage 4 students and Life skills students. If you assign this activity to a class, your students will be assigned all student resources on their 'My learning' page. You can also hand-pick the resources students are assigned by selecting individual resources when you add a work item to a class in 'My classes'.

Part A: Exploring the relationship between democracy and freedoms.

1. Working in pairs, students list 5 countries they associate with freedom and 5 countries they associate with a lack of freedom.
2. Record these countries on the board under 2 headings: ‘Freedom’ and ‘Lack of freedom’.
3. Students list of qualities that suggest ‘freedom’ and qualities that suggest a ‘lack of freedom’.
4. Use student suggestions to create a list of indicators of the qualities of ‘freedom’ and a list of indicators of the qualities of a ‘lack of freedom’. Summarise these on the board.
5. Display and discuss the definitions of democracy and autocracy using the Democracy versus autocracy visualiser.
6. Refer to the list of countries recorded on the board under ‘Freedom’ and ‘Lack of freedom’ and as a class discuss how a political system affects the freedoms enjoyed by its people.

Part B: Exploring the relationship between law and human rights

1. Display a poster of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in the classroom.
2. Divide the class into 6 teams. Each team investigates the laws that exist in Australia that protect the following human rights:
   • Article 2
   • Article 19
   • Article 20
   • Article 21
   • Article 25
   • Article 26.
   Note: You can change the Articles that students investigate to better suit their context or interests.
3. Groups report back to the class.
4. As a class discuss the role of law in protecting human rights.

Part C: Exploring the relationships between tax systems and freedom

1. Explain that comparisons of taxation revenue across countries requires the use of a common measure. Internationally, revenue as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) is an accepted measure of comparison. Note that GDP measures a country’s ‘output’ and is expressed in a common currency, usually US Dollars.
2. Display the quote from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) on the Tax revenue – Visualiser.
3. Clarify student understanding of the term ‘tax revenue’ and brainstorm the different taxes that people pay in Australia.
4. Use a grouping strategy to organise students in groups of 2 or 3.
5. Groups complete the tax systems and freedom investigation.

Part D: Exploring the correlation between tax revenue and human rights

1. Explain to students that they will work in pairs to explore if there is a relationship between a country’s tax system and the human rights of its citizens.
2. Pairs complete the tax revenue and human rights investigation.
3. As a class, revisit the relationship between democracy and freedoms, and discuss how a democratic country’s tax and legal systems support human rights, including freedoms.
4. Students write a paragraph on the role of a country’s tax and legal systems in protecting human rights. To scaffold student writing, refer them to Writing paragraphs about law, society and political involvement – Model.

Part E: Convincing others of the benefits of tax

1. Explain that students will have the task of persuading an audience that ‘it is good to pay tax’.
2. Form design teams of 3 students.
3. As a class, read through the design brief.
4. Model slides 3-5 of the design brief by displaying and explaining Tax revenue and human rights – Visualiser.
5. Design teams negotiate the country to be used for comparison (a country other than Mexico).
6. Provide time for students to research and construct their case.
7. After consultation with the teacher, design teams produce their slide presentation with ongoing team evaluations against the design criteria.
8. Design teams present their findings to the class.
9. Observers evaluate each presentation using a rubric constructed from the design criteria.