“Voice” referendum: Aboriginal people should finally be included in the Australian constitution

It’s all about this

In an emotional statement, Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced a referendum that would finally allow Australia’s indigenous people, the Aborigines, a say in the Australian Parliament and allow them to be named in the country’s constitution.

Specifically, the constitutional amendment is about a group of Indigenous Australians advising the government on Indigenous questions. Members must be nominated by Aboriginal officials and not by the government. The Australian people are expected to vote on the project before the end of this year.

The announcement Albanians

The plan for the referendum under the slogan “Voice to Parliament” had been known for some time – now Prime Minister Anthony Albanese made details and the specific question public at an emotional press conference.

“This will read: A proposed constitutional amendment bill to recognize Australia’s first peoples by creating an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander vote. Do you agree with this proposed change?” read the Albanians on Thursday.

During his speech, he sometimes spoke in a choked voice. Many indigenous representatives present also cried. “Many have been waiting for this moment for a very long time,” Albanese said.

The probability of the referendum

Labor politician Albanian went ahead with the “Voice Referendum” after his election victory in May 2022. It was recently said that the inquiry would be conducted sometime between October and December 2023. In the meantime, the question is whether the referendum will be accepted. In surveys, support for the issue has fluctuated between 45 and 55 percent in recent months.

However, the Australian people are considered very conservative when it comes to constitutional amendments and referenda are only accepted in exceptional cases. In addition, the bill must be passed in all states of the country, which can also pose a problem, since sensitivity to the situation of the Aboriginal people is not the same in all regions of the country.

The situation of the Aborigines in Australia

The relationship between Australians and the indigenous population is very sensitive Down Under. According to the National Museum, the Aborigines settled the Red Continent 65,000 years ago.

After the arrival of the First Fleet at Sydney Cove on 26 January 1788 and the colonization that followed, Aboriginal children were snatched from their parents for decades. They had to grow up in houses or with white families. Those affected are referred to as the “stolen generation” in Australia.

It wasn’t until 2008 that Prime Minister Kevin Rudd officially apologized for the suffering of the indigenous people. To this day, Aboriginal people still suffer the consequences of the past: in parts of the country they are still poorly integrated into society and suffer from discrimination. In addition, they are still not mentioned in the country’s constitution, which was adopted in 1901. And only in 1967 they were even given civil rights – before that they had the same legal status as animals.

Slow change in the recent past

Only in recent years has there been a real turnaround among the Australian population and a growing sensitivity to the plight and concerns of Indigenous people, as illustrated by the example of the national holiday on January 26. For example, “Australia Day”, the day on which the “First Fleet” arrived in Sydney, received a change of meaning.

In the past, the day was considered a national holiday, celebrated as August 1 in Switzerland, but now there are protests in several regions of the country calling for the national holiday to be changed to a different date. The city of Perth, which hosted the country’s largest festival until 2019, has now halted the event altogether. The Aboriginal people have always called “Australia Day” “Invasion Day”.

With material from the SDA and DPA news agencies.