Aboriginals were not considered citizens of Australia until 1967, and some were regulated under Flora and Fauna Law. The federal constitution,
written in 1900, explicitly stated that Aboriginals would not be
counted in any state or federal census. Queensland was the last state in
Australia to grant state voting rights to Aboriginals in 1965;
Aboriginals in the Northern Territory were considered “wards of the
state” and were not allowed to vote in federal elections unless they
were ex-servicemen up until 1962. Voting and citizenship rights for
Aboriginals were written into the constitution with a 1967 referendum,
which also removed discriminatory references to Aboriginals from the
Constitution and gave Parliament the power to make laws pertaining to
Indigenous Peoples (previous to that, state governments had total
law-making power over Aborigines). The referendum set a voting record,
with 90.77 percent of the entire population voting in favor of it.
Interestingly, the highest percentage of “no” votes were recorded in
territories with the highest Aboriginal populations, suggesting that
anti-Indigenous racism was still rampant in many areas of Australia
(since the passage of the Race Discrimination Act
in 1975, 10,5000 complaints have been filed with the government, with
more than 3,500 of those coming from Aboriginals and Torres Strait
Islanders). However, though voting is mandatory for all Australian
citizens, voting was not made compulsory for Aborigines until 1983. Queensland has lagged behind in many Indigenous rights laws – Queensland Aborigines could be forced to live on reserves until 1971, and could not own their own property until 1975.
In 1959, Aboriginals became eligible to receive pensions and maternity
leave, but only if they were not “nomadic or primitive,” and often group
payments were made to reserves or missions rather than individuals or
communities. Though many of these discriminatory laws were changed in
the 1960s and 1970s, others were being created – legislation created in the 1970s requires that the
estate of an Aboriginal who dies without leaving a will should be
automatically put in the hands of a public trustee, rather than granted
to the next of kin as is the case with non-Aboriginals. The Law
Reform Committee recommended that this law be changed in 2008, and the
Department of Indigenous Affairs confirmed in 2012 that they are
“considering it.” Also contentious is New South Wales’ Flora and Fauna Law under the National Parks and Wildlife Act. This law claims that the majority of Aboriginal artifacts are “property of the crown,” and
claims jurisdiction over all Aboriginal heritage and culture.
Aboriginals, understandably, object to their culture being regulated
under an act meant to protect vegetation and wild animals. New South
Wales is the only state in Australia not to have a stand-alone
Aboriginal Heritage Act, and activists have been lobbying for one for
the past thirty years.