Indigenous Voting Rights

When the Constitution came into effect in 1901, it contained only two references to Aboriginal people in Australia, who were at the time often defined as 'individuals with at least 50% Aboriginal ancestry', Both of these references were discriminatory:

• Section 51 of the constitution gave the "...commonwealth power to make laws with respect to ‘people of any race, other than the Aboriginal race in any state, for whom it was deemed necessary to make special laws." For example, a special law made was that 'protectors', (people who were in control of what Aboriginal people did) had to approve marriages, residents and more for all Indigenous people.

•  Section 127 of the constitution stated that "In reckoning the numbers of people of the Commonwealth, or of a State or other part of the Commonwealth, aboriginal natives shall not be counted", which meant that Indigenous people were not recognised as part of the population of Australia and therefore laws passed by government could ignore their needs.

IT WAS A VERY COMPLICATED JOURNEY TO GET THIS RECOGNITION FOR INDIGENOUS PEOPLE

The vote for Indigenous people was actually granted in 1856 to all Indigeous men in some colonies such as NSW. This was because in these colonies there was never anything that specifically said that Indigeous people could not vote, however nearly all Indigenous people did not vote because:

• Many Indigenous people at the time rarely voted, even though they technically had the right to do so, because this right was not widely known, advertised, or discussed within their communities. 

• Indigenous people were discouraged to vote and would face discrimination when they were voting at polling booths, including being shooed away by people and having things thrown at them, in an attempt to permanently discourage them from voting.

• Indigenous People also faced physical barriers to get to these polling places in remote communities. Most Aboriginal people at the time lived in regional and remote areas where there were no polling places nearby for them to go to vote.

• The majority of Indigenous people were illiterate and not able to speak English, but they also did not understand this idea of British democracy. At the time Indigeous people had not had much exposure to Western politics and therefore did not know what they were voting for.

However, when the Australian constitution began in 1901 these voting rights were taken away. In the early 1950's the idea of Indigeous people voting returned again and discussion began. This was when a famous activist, Faith Bandler, who led the Federal Council for the Advancement of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders became one of the biggest supporters for a referendum to recognise Indigenous people as part of the Australian Population. She would talk to journalists, speaking at meeting and rallies, and lobbying politicians whilst aiming to connect with mostly white audiences. 

Some Aboriginal people were actually allowed to vote in federal elections in 1949; however, this only applied to the people who had served in the Australian Army. It was not until 1962 that all Indigenous people were allowed to vote in federal elections which was a huge breakthrough for the time.

All of this lobbying resulted in a Referendum in May 1967. The Referendum was called by Harold Holt for the Australian people to vote either ‘yes’ or ‘no’ for the repeal of section 127 of the Australian constitution, outlining that ‘Aboriginal natives shall not be counted in reckoning the number of people in the Commonwealth or in any state’. The second section that was to be amended was section 51, enforcing that ‘the Commonwealth government would now have the power to make laws for Aboriginal people’. Before the referendum people were overwhelmingly choosing YES, to the point where there was no official NO campaign. It was the most successful result in Australia's history with 90.77% of the Australian population voting 'YES' to remove discriminatory sections in the constitution. To add to this success, the majority of people in every state and all 124 individual electorates voted YES. This was a huge success and a message from the nation that Indigenous people should get equal rights and not be discriminated by Australia's most important legal document (the Constitution). Harold Holt, the Prime Minister at the time stated, '"the vote will not only help the aborigine it will contribute to Australia's international standing by demonstrating to the outside world our overwhelming desire to give full acceptance to the aboriginal people within our community."