How Australia Adapted The National Security Act In 1939

Australia adapted the national security act in 1939, which was used during world war 2. This gave the Government unprecedented power to protect the people and defend the country from the war, which had a major impact on the Australians. Censorship, rationing and conscription were all laws made during world war to: hide terrifying truth, keep the economy and living standard maintained and to get men and women to protect and defend the country.

The Australian government introduced this two laws to specifically protect the ordinary Australians. They were Censorship and Internment. Strict censorship is when filtering and controlling information from all forms of media. It was introduced in 1939 during world war two because the government had to

The definition of rationing was limiting the amount of goods and services owned by each household or person. Rationing was introduced on May 14, 1942, it was so there would be a cut on buyer spending and this would lead to an increase in savings, which in turn could be invested in war loans. During the war a great amount of luxury goods was not produced including toys, pyjamas and lawnmowers and some other items were rationalised. Such as in 1942, June 12, clothing limited to 112 coupons per year, June 3, tea was limited to 5lbs every 5 weeks, in august 29, sugar 2lbs per two weeks, in 1943 june7, butter was limited to 1lb per fortnight and 1944 January 14, meat was rationalised to two lbs per week. The limited amount of goods and service had an extensive impact on the living standards of the Australians this is because they had less access to goods and service to satisfy their needs and wants. Pregnant women’s and families with young children were given extra ration, during the war and they were also encouraged to have a vegie patch so they can grow their own food. If this law was violated there would be a fines either £100 or 6 months in prison and it was later on increase to £1000.