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AUSTRALIA HAS SHELVED plans to hold a referendum on formally recognising the country’s Aborigines in the constitution, saying there was not enough public support for the move.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard described the vote as a “once in 50-year opportunity” when she first unveiled plans for the referendum in 2010, saying there was a rare moment of widespread public and parliamentary support.
Gillard had said the vote, which would have followed a historic 2008 government apology to Aboriginal Australians for wrongs committed since white settlement in 1788, could be held before or in conjunction with next year’s national elections.
Act of Recognition
But Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin said the plan had been shelved for two or three years due to a lack of community support, with the government instead set to pass a special “Act of Recognition”.
“I understand that people are disappointed. I’m disappointed myself,” said Macklin.
“All of us would like to see the recognition of indigenous Australians in the constitution as soon as possible, but nobody wants it to fail, most of all indigenous Australians,” the minister added.
“I think we also have to acknowledge that there isn’t the community awareness for a change to the constitution.”
Macklin said it could take several years to gather enough support.
Australia has not held a referendum since 1999, when a move to become a republic was rejected.
In 44 referendums since 1901, only eight have been passed, including a resoundingly successful 1967 vote on counting Aboriginal Australians as part of the population.
Macklin said the Act of Recognition would address the recommendations of an expert panel into the proposed referendum in the interim.
The most disadvantaged minority
They included recognising Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as Australia’s original inhabitants and acknowledging the need to secure the advancement of these groups, the nation’s most disadvantaged minority.
Once thought to number more than one million, Aborigines now account for just 470,000 out of a population of 22 million, and suffer disproportionately high rates of disease, imprisonment and unemployment.
Aboriginal men have a life expectancy 11.5 years shorter than their non-Aboriginal counterparts. Aboriginal women die 9.7 years sooner than non-Aboriginal women.
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People should stop referring to the settling of Australia as colonisation and use the term invasion instead. That is what it was. The invasion of the Aborigines land by imperial countries. I pity the poor Aborigines.
Agreed. Colonists are invaders, end of story. And how is it that those trying to free their own country from invaders are always referred to as terrorists or worse i.e. the Mao Mao, Vietcong, Native Americans, Irish Republicans 1916-1921.
You would think she would just order the referendum…..given her majority in government and the fact she is the prime minister.Her reasons ring a bit hollow.Announce it and see who is disinterested then.Agree totally with your remarks..
i agree too but she’s not going to call for a referendum that won’t pass, and its not going to for a awhile yet
Get the Celts out of Ireland! Give Ireland back to the Irish!
shame!
wow.In this day and age.Is Austrailia really that backward.I hoped by now things would have changed.Even if bill was passed next week this now shows the resentment still exists.Invaders is right. Look at all the trouble these invaders have caused and left after them all through the ages and continue to do.
Its certainly the most racist country I have visited and I couldn’t get out fast enough. The treatment of indigenous people is appalling. There are almost four times more Irish in Australia than aborigines. Do you have something in mind to limit the expansion?
Neil are suggesting there are 2 million Irish living in Australia!? That would be roughly half the population of ireland…
1919727 according to the 2001 census . Guess we might have done a bit more breeding in the past 11 years to get closer to the 2m
Very disappointing for Australia. surely it is the governments job to create the awareness for their proposal/ referendum for change to the constitution within communities? Something as important as that should not be ‘shelved.’
So they’re saying the average joe in the community doesn’t want the Aborigines to have recognition/rights? That’s pretty damn alarming…
And this a day or two after they voted against equal marriage rights for gay people? Wonder how we’d fare in Ireland on similar issues?
I’ve noticed from living and working there that not all but a lot of Australians bare a certain degree of disliking towards other nationals including Australia’s own indigenous people. They fail to recognize that the vast majority of their ancestors originated from round our neck of the woods.
I was once in a bar with a few Australian work colleagues when an old aboriginal lady came over to the group and started mumbling ” are ya gonna say sorry?”. Now she did have a few drinks on her. I stood back cause I didn’t want to get involved. Two of the guys,big lads, rared up on her telling her to f**k of, ushering her away with more expletives. When it calmed down, I leaned in and said “jez lads there was no real need for that”, when one of them simply just turned to me and said “she can f**k of, it’s our country now!!”
I was shocked by his remark.
You would never witness that kind of behaviour in Ireland, just ask any member of the travelling community.
The Aborigines have been blamed for a lot of anti-social behaviour (I can’t say if it is justified) but it is easier to be critical of problems which affect others in a distant country.
Australians are quite insular in their outlook. I was at a NRL party in a pub in N. Sydney recently where the topic of conversation turned to the horse Black Caviar which was unbeaten in Australia and won a race by a nose at Ascot. Consensus of opinion was that this was the best horse in the world and no horse of any quality should be seen to do anything but sprint. I happened to mention Frankel but only two people were aware of him.
The recent vote on gay marriage, Senator Bernardi’s ‘bestiality’ outburst and their utter disrespect for anything aboriginal is symptomatic of what I call the NRL syndrome.
Mate, Sky News here spends half and hour every hour talking about sport. Most Aussies here haven’t got a clue about the world outside. I have been here four years and it drives me mad. So much so I have decided to leave. Australia is like a blonde airhead super model. Beautiful on the outside but no real substance.
Australians actually believe Aussie Rules is the best game in the world, thats how insular they are. Seriously though this is not really helping their image. Obviously while living there 2 years ago I viewed migrant Aussies as being shallow, yobbish as well as insular, generally behaved like spoiled brats, glad I moved back to Dublin where the people are a lot more ummm!
Our friends down under are quite xenophobic and racist too. I was working there (in an Irish pub-shocker) a few years ago and on two separate occasions I was asked to “f~~k off back to Ireland..”. They are almost as our other friends in America for their skewed world view.
The fact of the matter is they are the descendants or immigrants whether the were forced or chose to go. And they emigrated to a continent that was essentially stolen from the original inhabitants who were then forced to live in horrendous conditions, stolen from their families and treated worse than dogs. I wonder is there some level of shame and guilt about this that makes up a part of the psyche over there, that maybe this racism and xenophobia is because of this?
And you think it’s bad now? Wait til the Australian government come up with a 21st century way of stealing back the land that they returned to the Aboriginal communities so they can get their hands on the resources under it. Australia has big plans for itself in the Asia-Pacific region in the future and they’re going to need everything they can get their hands on.
You ‘holier than thou’ hypocrites . I am fed up with drunken Irish backpackers deficating, fighting and vomiting,out side my house, night after night, (I live near a pub),then you have the audacity to speak about aboriginal affairs, to which you know nothing about, for example, 2.4 billion dollars has been spent in just 4 years on aboriginal communities , the lawyers are queuing up to represent and sue for every little issue, there are special Rules and laws for Aboriginals Hunting and fishing in national parks ( with guns I may add) and sold on to foreign markets, special uni seats ,rent allowance health benifits, there are whole towns on benifits the advantages are so big that the population is exploding , people with 1/16th native blood are claiming Aboriginal status, at a recent home auction, some very white looking men came in to the property and halted proceedings claiming a sacred site because they noticed some shells in the grass.(put there by kids who used to live there) . There are huge tracts of land reserved for the exclusive use of aboriginals and continually growing. It is mandatory for construction firms working on government jobs to have affirmative action by hiring Aboriginal workers, we hear about the “stolen generation” a great deal of those kids were taken for their own protection, then the prime minister says ‘sorry’, as a result there is a culpability now they are all suing the tax payer, I could go on and on , there is little wonder the broader population is a little sceptical about placing a race oriented statement in the constitution.
Ha Ha Ha. Oh that’s funny. I see what you did. You made it look like they were lucky to have us white people take over and help them out. Just like looking after monkeys in the zoo.
I’m a donegal man working in an Irish bar in Australia and to hear every fooker that comes in and says that there Irish and then proceed to tell us the history of our country thinkin they know everything..and the same aul shite “Oh top of the mornin to ya” and diddly dee potatoes..makes my blood boil..the arse will fall out of this country in the next few years and they won’t have a leg to stand on!!
shiteshite o
Gillard is under pressure in Oz. Not all her party are behind her and some of her decisions havent gone down well. A failed referendum would have been the end of her.
My mistake-,That should be $24.4 billion. Not 2.4 as I said above.
Xenophobic? Wrong walk down the street of any Australian City,or the arrivals hall of any airport, if Australians are so racist . Why do so many people want to come here to live here with all these “racists”
Homophobic? The Sydney Mardi Gra .
Domestic partner laws .
Just because the majority in parliament voted down for now Gay marriage , does not mean the population is anti Gay or homophobic, most people me included don’t care one way or the other.
My mistake-,That should be $24.4 billion. Not 2.4 as I said above.
Xenophobic? Wrong walk down the street of any Australian City,or the arrivals hall of any airport, if Australians are so racist . Why do so many people want to come here to live here with all these “racists”
Homophobic? The Sydney Mardi Gra .
Domestic partner laws .
Just because the majority in parliament voted down for now Gay marriage , does not mean the population is anti Gay or homophobic, most people me included don’t care one way or the other.
24m for Aboriginals u sayin? Rised how? On THEIR land. I guess nothing left for poor white people, who’s prosperity came out of that occupation? Would u call “antisocial” on antinazi resistance across Europe during German occupation/IIWW?
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