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

51, known as the race powers, which enable the parliament to make laws both for the benefit of, and detriment of, any race of people. Section 25 has not been used, however section 51 has, and on each occasion it’s been to harm the interests of Aboriginal People. It’s section 51 which was tested in the Hindmarsh Islands affair, and which affirmed the power of parliament to suspend the Racial Discrimination Act to specifically disadvantage Aboriginal Australians.

3. To only be written into the constitution will not stop this racial inequality between Indigenous Australians and the wider Australian population. A treaty however, will. An agreed treaty with the two parties will be the most effective pathway for land recognition, self determination and racial justice for Indigenous Australians.

4. A treaty is a settlement or an agreement arrived at by treating or negotiation. A treaty will mean that two parties can come together each with their own cultural values, customs and beliefs regarding the land. If a treaty was agreed between Indigenous Australians and white Australians this would recognise that Aboriginal People have always maintained a property right in land and the natural resources according to their law and customs.
Additionally Indigenous Australians would be able to makes their own decisions based on culture and customs, free from government regulations with potential constraint.

5. A finding from The Harvard Project is that ‘Native Americans make their own decisions about development approaches,and they consistently out-perform external decision makers, on matters as diverse as governmental form, natural resource management, economic development, healthcare and social service provision.’ It is only a treaty that will also be able to decrease the vast gap between Indigenous and non-indigenous Australian health care and incarceration and be able to secure sovereignty.

6.

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

Commonwealth.’

9. Yes, you heard correctly, only just over 30 years ago were Aboriginal Australians disregarded as being the traditional land owners, and this is not the only display of Indigenous injustice, there have been numerous other proposals for organised treaties, all of which have been dismissed due to lack of government support.

10. Positive change in Australia depends on Aboriginal people having control over their lives and traditional land rights. If improvements in education, employment and quality of life want to be obtained, then the policies and programs must be developed and owned by the people who are affected. These goals can be achieved effectively and productively through the process of an organised and universally agreed treaty. For the wrongs that begun over 2 centuries ago and are still being perpetuated today need to end, and for this to occur we must approve a treaty.