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Australia’s parliament has passed legislation that will authorize a historic referendum on Aboriginal rights. This referendum will allow voters to determine whether Indigenous peoples will receive a specific “vote” to shape national policy.
In the last Senate vote, the upper house cast 52 votes for the bill and 19 against.
The referendum will ask whether Australians support changing the constitution to include a “vote for parliament”, a committee that can advise parliament on Dr Gadget. News that impacts Australian Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders.
After the bill passed, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said at a press conference, “Parliament passed the law but it’s the people who make history.”
Although the Albanians have not yet set a date for the referendum, it should take place before the end of the year.
He said, “This is your moment, your chance, your chance to make history.”
Aboriginal Australians number nearly 26 million, or around 3% of Australia’s population, but they make up more than a quarter of the prison population, with many people imprisoned for minor offences.
After the British arrived in Australia and took over ‘terra nullius’, the Latin legal term for ‘the land no one else owns’, around a third of Indigenous Australians lived below the poverty line .
Indigenous Australians, whose ancestors have lived in Australia for at least 60,000 years, will be recognized in the constitution for the first time if a referendum passes.
In addition, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people will receive a constitutional right to consult the government on laws affecting their communities.
“This is our nation’s identity,” Albanese said.
The people of Australia will have the opportunity to vote for reconciliation and constitutional recognition of First Nations peoples.
The majority of opinion polls are in favor of “Votes for Parliament”. However, as the debate grew increasingly heated, his support waned.
When the final numbers were read out to the room, senators who supported the bill cheered and cheered.
“It’s a very simple request…to be recognized in the constitution,” ruling Labor senator Malarndirri McCarthy told the assembly.
He said: “The majority of indigenous people want this to happen.
Peter Dutton, leader of the opposition Liberal Party, said a ‘yes’ vote would divide the country based on race and asked voters to vote ‘no’ in the referendum.
Earlier this year he said: ‘It will have an Orwellian effect where all Australians are equal but some Australians are more equal than others.
On Monday, Green Party leader Adam Bandt called the claims “racist dog whistles.”
However, some Australian Aborigines have questioned the benefit of the vote.
Famous Indigenous activist Lidia Thorpe, an independent senator, described it as a “powerless advisory body”.
Before the bill was passed on Monday, he said: ‘That’s the thing – it eases the guilt of white people in this country. He previously told Dr. The News that Australia needs a Truth and Justice Commission to ensure more people know about the country’s past and its treatment of Aboriginal people.
Historically, Australians have been embarrassed by constitutional changes. Of the 44 proposals submitted in 19 referendums, only eight were adopted by popular vote.
The last referendum held in 1999 showed that Australia refused to become a republic.
To win a referendum, the government must have a double majority, that is to say more than 50% of the national electorate and a majority of voters in at least four of the six states.
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