Reconciliation South Australia Inc
"a united Australia which respects this land of ours; values the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander heritage; and provides justice and equity for all"
Be the change; I am the change.
National Reconciliation Week: 27 May to 3 June
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Reconciliation - South Australia Inc is proudly supported by:
The 1967 Referendum |
| The 1967 Referendum: Important Facts and Interesting Pieces of Information (excerpt from the Reconciliation Australia Fact Sheet on the Referendum) |
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• The Government
At the time of the referendum in 1967, Harold Holt was the Prime Minister and a Liberal Country Party Coalition Government was in power. The Constitutional review process was commenced by Robert Menzies who retired in January 1966. The original question (as proposed by Menzies) only included changes to s127. Holt decided to delay the referendum until after the Federal election in November 1966 and added the s51 change to the question.
• ‘The Aboriginal Question’
The referendum did not
- give Indigenous people the right to vote
- give Indigenous people citizenship rights
- give Indigenous people the right to be counted in the census.
The real purpose of the referendum was to make two changes to the Australian Constitution. These changes enabled the Commonwealth Government to:
- make laws for all of the Australian people by amending s51 of the Constitution, (previously people of ‘the Aboriginal race in any State’ were excluded), and;
- take account of Aboriginal people in determining the population of Australia by repealing s127 of the Constitution (formerly, Indigenous people had been haphazardly included in the census but not counted for the purposes of Commonwealth funding grants to the states or territories. From 1967, Indigenous people were counted in the census and included in base figures for Commonwealth funding granted to the states and territories on a per capita basis).
• The effect of the referendum on the national census
Prior to 1967, there was a race question included in the census to establish the number of 'full-blood' Aborigines. The term 'full-blood' referred to people with an Aboriginal blood quantum of over 50%. This number was then subtracted from the national population count. Remote rural areas that were uninhabited by non-Aborigines were not enumerated although rough estimates were often made. This means that the quality of the early Aboriginal counts is questionable. Society viewed Aboriginality as a disadvantage and many people did not report their origins or changed it from one census to the next. After the 1967 referendum, the wording of the census question used ‘race’ but did not ask for blood fractions of race. There were greater efforts to obtain a complete coverage of the Indigenous population, including remote areas. "Between 1966 and 1971 the count increased by 44.6% and between 1971 and 1976 it increased by 38.8%." All censuses since 1981 have used the same question to determine Indigenous status: ‘Is the person of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander origin?’
• The Result
What was the result, federally and in each of the states?
- New South Wales 91.5%
- Victoria 94.7%
- Queensland 89.2%
- South Australia 86.3%
- Western Australia 80.9%
- Tasmania 90.2%
- National 90.8%4
Further information:
National Archives of Australia - Fact sheet 150 – The 1967 Referendum
ABC Online - Didj "u" know? stories
Reconciliation Australia - 1967 Referendum Cheat Sheet