The Australian Constitution Reflected Deep Racist Ideas

1. It has been 200 years since the first white settlers took ownership of Aboriginal and Tore Strait Islander land, took ownership of land that has been woven into Indigenous Australian culture and tradition for centuries, took ownership of land that was not Terra Nullius. We, as white Australians, have still not given this land back.

2. In 1901 the Australian constitution reflected deep racist ideas and they were presented in three major ways, the preamble to where Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people’s special place in Australian society as the original custodians were not acknowledged, section 25, which specifically allows for the disqualification of any race of people from voting in an Australian election. As well as section

For Aboriginal Australians to achieve full recognition for being the traditional custodians of the land, it must be through the process of a treaty. Constitutional recognition is not enough, it would only be symbolic. It would not allow for further improvement within the Indigenous community. A treaty would also provide a basis for co-existence of non-Aboriginal and Aboriginal people, breaking any Australian government’s tendency to make laws for Aboriginal people rather than with them.

7. A quote by Mr Thompson an Aboriginal Australian Activist last month states "The Government, including the Federal Government, would serve the Aboriginal people a lot better by looking at a treaty rather than constitutional recognition.”He believes, much like many Indigenous Australians that being written within the constitution would not serve much purpose other than being culturally significant.

8. There are many benefits of a treaty, however the main concern is that will a treaty ever be agreed on with Indigenous Australians and the government? Australia is now the only Commonwealth nation that does not have a treaty with it original land owners. A shameful act by the government regarding a proposed treaty, was in 1983 where ‘The Senate Standing Committee on Constitutional and Legal Affairs, in its report Two Hundred Years Later, rejects the idea of a treaty because it believes that the Aboriginal peoples were not a sovereign entity and so they could not enter into a treaty with the