40 Years Later

On this day 40 years ago, over 90% of voting Australians voted "Yes" to a Federal referendum that made two changes to the constitution. The second of these changes was to include aboriginal Australians in the national census and to remove a clause that had excluded them from Federal legislation.

Of these two amendments, the inclusion in the census rectified an intrinsic racism within the constitution (prior to this, aborigines came under the "Flora and Fauna Act"). The second was more ambitious in that social, economic and political inequality could be more effectively addressed if the power to pass laws affecting aboriginal Australians was held by the Federal government.