Equality Between Indigenous And Non Indigenous Australians

The 1967 Referendum had a significant impact on the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Prior to this event, these people had still not received some basic civil rights. The Referendum proposed to include Aboriginal people in the census and to allow the Commonwealth government to make laws for them. This change was seen as a recognition of Aboriginal people as full Australian citizens after giving them the right to vote in 1962.

It is a commonly known issue in Australia that as a minority group, the people of Indigenous Australian ethnicity have always been treated, or at least perceived, differently to those of non-Indigenous disposition. This can be applied to different contexts such as social, economic, education, or in relation to this essay – legal contexts. Generally, Indigenous Australians face issues such as less opportunity for formal education, less access to sufficient income, more health issues, and higher rates of imprisonment (Steering Committee for the Review of Government Service

Since the time of federation the Aboriginal people have been fighting for their rights through protests, strikes and the notorious ‘day of mourning’. However, over the last century the Australian federal government has generated policies which manage and restrained that of the Aboriginal people’s rights, citizenships and general protection. The Australian government policy that has had the most significant impact on indigenous Australians is the assimilation policy. The reasons behind this include the influences that the stolen generation has had on the indigenous Australians, their relegated rights and their entitlement to vote and the impact that the policy has had on the indigenous people of Australia.

The 1967 referendum was the repeal of section 127 and section 51 in the Commonwealth Constitution. With the repeal of these two sections the “Federal Government were allowed to make laws for Aborigines and Aborigines were now counted in the national census”(About the 1967 Referendum). The 1967 referendum can be commonly considered the turning point in Australian history and culture for finally addressing discrimination towards the Indigenous people and taking responsibility for Aboriginal affairs. However, some do not have the same representation of the results of the 1967 referendum because of the little improvement it has done for the Indigenous people.

Firstly the change in legal and constitutional rights have been a great creator of rights for the Aboriginal people. Up until 1967 the Aboriginals did not have the right to be counted in the census. This was basically a way of saying that the Aboriginals were not Australians, almost not even people. Fortunately the 1967 referendum gave Aboriginals citizenship. It did however not end any discrimination against the Aboriginal people and

Indigenous Australians have been fighting for their civil rights since European colonisation in 1788, in particular, for their rights to land ownership. Prior to the Mabo land rights case, there was very little success when it came to indigenous Australians making claims. The Mabo case took land rights to the highest court in Australia. It succeeded in achieving land rights and overturning Terra Nullius. The Mabo case helped to continue to chip away at the barriers of civil rights. The Mabo Case was a step towards Indigenous equality.

In 1965 a group of students from Sydney University formed a group, called Student Action for Aborigines, that’s purpose was to draw attention to the inequality between white and indigenous Australia based in New South Wales. It also hoped to decrease the social discrimination between white Australia and indigenous Australia as well as give support to aboriginals to withstand the discrimination they face daily.

In 1967, a landmark event occurred for the Indigenous Community of Australia. They were no longer declared Flora and Fauna This means that Aboriginal people would be considered a part of the landscape and not humans in their own right.. In 1967, a Referendum was held by all members of Australian society voting on the issue of allowing Indigenous Australian to be a part of the census and thereby able to vote and be counted as part of Australia’s population. This achieved not only citizenship for Aboriginal people, but put the issue of Indigenous Rights on both the political and social platforms. This essay will look at the lead up to the Referendum, how Aborigines and their supporters communicated their belief in their rights to the

Hi fellow classmates and Miss Hope, my name is Kally and today I’m going to argue why the Indigenous Australians of our country should be offered the same human rights as each of us in this room and experience the equality, which our country lacks.

Several key events and people influenced the journey and results of Aboriginal voting rights. Many major contributions towards the indigenous voting rights can be described as international criticism, Aboriginal Protests and Political conflicts. Male Aboriginal Australians were recognised as male people, and therefore could vote in state elections, It was expected to stay this way. However, the ‘white Australia policy’ in 1901 caused many Aboriginal Men to lose their state voting rights and banned them from enrolling in federal elections, According to (hgj) The “electoral officials had the power to decide who was an ‘Aboriginal Native’ or not.” After several years of discrimination, in 1934 Indigenous Australians took a stand in a day of mourning for indigenous rights. Another powerful argument for Aboriginal Australians was their world war efforts from 1914 to 1918. Many white Australians that fought with the Indigenous Australians believed that if “they are good enough to fight and die for their country then they are good enough to vote in elections” As a result of this effort, 1945 marked the year that all male Aboriginal war participants were granted Federal election voting rights. It is important to remember when and how the

Each example given has also shown how self-determination was and continues to be a major struggle for Aboriginal people. Beginning with the Whitlam government, the Land Rights Act was going to be the national recognition that Aboriginal people had been waiting for, however the swift dismissal of the government and subsequent changes to the bill meant that an uninformed government would dictate claims of Aboriginal land rights. This was continued in the Heritage Protection Act for Western Australia in which no monitoring of abuses of power within the authoritative ministry was assessed; hence damage to heritage sites for the development of industries occurred. Finally the Racial Discrimination Act although making racial discrimination illegal has clearly been violated by the government in the Northern Territory interventions and hence is not valued by Australia despite the international commitments made to recognising Indigenous rights. Although legislation has been introduced to recognise Indigenous rights, there seems to always be a catch. A final reoccurring theme in the legislation discussed is the uninformed views of the non-Indigenous government as decisions are made on behalf of Aboriginal people; hence two major statements were discussed that precisely define Aboriginal self-determination by Aboriginal

One of the first campaigns that made Australian history was commonly known as the 1967 Referendum. It proposed to include Aboriginal people in the census and allow the Commonwealth government to make laws for the Aboriginal people. The current Commonwealth

Human rights are the rights of humans, regardless of nationality, gender, race, or religion. We should all have this in common as we are all part of humanity. However, Indigenous people did not always have these rights (Ag.gov.au, 2015). Aside from basic human rights, Indigenous people also have their own rights specific to their culture. Before 1967, Indigenous people had different rights in different states and the Australian federal government did not have any jurisdiction over Aboriginal affairs until Australia’s constitution was amended for this purpose in 1967 (Moadoph.gov.au, 2015). Between 1900 and the present time, there have been significant changes to the rights of Indigenous Australians. The effects of the European Settlement on the Indigenous people of Australia have been devastating. When white people began arriving in Australia, the Aboriginal people believed them to be ghosts of ancestor spirits. However, once they realised the settlers were invading their land, the Aborigines became, understandably, hostile (Slater & Parish, 1999, pp.8-11). In 1788, the total Indigenous population was believed to be between 750,000 and one million. By 1888, the Indigenous population was reduced to around 80,000 Australia wide (Korff, 2014). The three main reasons for this dramatic decline were the introduction of new diseases, violent conflicts with the colonisers, and settlers acquiring Indigenous land (Digital, 2015). In 1848, the Board of National Education stated that it

On 27th May 1967, 90.77% of Australians voted in favour of changes to the Australian Constitution to improve the welfare of Indigenous signifying the end of racial discrimination . The 1967 Referendum was a practical and symbolic strategy which proposed to include Aboriginal people in the census and to allow the Commonwealth government to make laws for Indigenous Australians. The Referendum has had a significant impact on Indigenous policies as it

In the early 1900’s Indigenous Australian peoples were affected by the implementation of government policies which