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The 1967 Australian referendum occurred on 27 May 1967 under the Holt government. It contained three topics asked about in two questions, regarding the passage of two bills to alter the Australian Constitution .
The second question of the 1967 Australian referendum of 27 May 1967, called by the Holt government, related to Indigenous Australians.Voters were asked whether to give the Commonwealth Parliament the power to make special laws for Indigenous Australians, [1] and whether Indigenous Australians should be included in official population counts for constitutional purposes.
The 1967 Australian referendum called by the Holt government on 27 May 1967 consisted of two parts, with the second question relating to Aboriginal Australians. Section 24 of the Australian Constitution requires that the number of members in the House of Representatives be, as nearly as possible, twice the number of members in the Senate. [1]
The Australian people voting at the 1967 referendum deleted the words in italics, moving and centralising the existing State Parliaments' race power to the Federal government. Edmund Barton had argued in the 1898 Constitutional Convention that s 51(xxvi) was necessary to enable the Commonwealth to "regulate the affairs of the people of coloured ...
Following the 1967 referendum, greater emphasis was placed on Indigenous sovereignty to call for greater self-autonomy and self-determination. New activists emerged, challenging the assumptions of the previous generation by conceptualising their struggle as that of an oppressed people rather than as minority group seeking inclusion. [37]
The Week occurs each year between two highly symbolic dates: 27 May, the anniversary of the 1967 referendum, and 3 June, or Mabo Day, [25] the date that The Mabo decision was made in the High Court of Australia. [26] National Sorry Day, on 26 May, remembers the anniversary of the day that the Bringing Them Home report was tabled in Parliament. [27]
In 1967, the first Indigenous referendum was held. Prior to 1967, the federal government did not have the power to create laws specifically for Indigenous Australians, with section 51(xxvi) giving the Parliament the power to make laws with respect to "the people of any race, other than the aboriginal race in any State". [ 16 ]
Several significant events marked a change in public opinion in Australia. In 1967, an overwhelming majority of Australians – over 90 per cent of voters and a majority in all six states – voted "Yes" to giving the Federal Government power to make laws specifically for Indigenous Australians, in the 1967 Referendum. [21]