The Australian 1967 Referendum was a referendum called by the Holt Government that occurred on the 27th of May 1967. The 1967 Referendum was significant for the civil rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders because it amended Section 51 and removed Section 127 from the Australian Constitution both of which discriminated against Aboriginals. A staggering 90.77% of Australian voters voted in favour of changing the Constitution believing that it would end racial discrimination towards Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders, however this was not the case.
The amendment of Section 51 was significant for the civil rights of Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders because it allowed the federal government to make federal laws for Aboriginal …show more content…
Section 127 stated that: “In reckoning the numbers of the people of the Commonwealth, or of a State or other part of the Commonwealth, aboriginal natives should not be counted.” In a video interview with Gary Williams, an Aboriginal elder who was 21 years old when the 1967 Referendum occurred he states that “Because we weren’t counted as part of the census, we were part of the flora and fauna so that we felt that after the vote came through we were recognised as people”. This shows how degrading and humiliating it must have been for Aboriginals as it suggested that indigenous Australians were regarded as animals instead of human beings by the federal government and therefore did not deserve human rights. Section 127 also made Australia’s Aboriginal population basically invisible to the federal government which resulted in the federal government only providing funding to the non-indigenous population as the federal government did not know the exact number of Aboriginals living in Australia or where the most populated indigenous communities were located. This meant that state governments could only provide limited funding and services to Indigenous communities thus lowering their quality of
The amendment of Section 51 was significant for the civil rights of Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders because it allowed the federal government to make federal laws for Aboriginal …show more content…
Section 127 stated that: “In reckoning the numbers of the people of the Commonwealth, or of a State or other part of the Commonwealth, aboriginal natives should not be counted.” In a video interview with Gary Williams, an Aboriginal elder who was 21 years old when the 1967 Referendum occurred he states that “Because we weren’t counted as part of the census, we were part of the flora and fauna so that we felt that after the vote came through we were recognised as people”. This shows how degrading and humiliating it must have been for Aboriginals as it suggested that indigenous Australians were regarded as animals instead of human beings by the federal government and therefore did not deserve human rights. Section 127 also made Australia’s Aboriginal population basically invisible to the federal government which resulted in the federal government only providing funding to the non-indigenous population as the federal government did not know the exact number of Aboriginals living in Australia or where the most populated indigenous communities were located. This meant that state governments could only provide limited funding and services to Indigenous communities thus lowering their quality of