Looking back on the 1967 referendum

27 May marks the anniversary of 1967’s historic referendum. Referenda are the only means by which the Australian Constitution can be changed and the 1967 referendum sought to amend two sections referring to Indigenous Australians.

There is a common misperception that the ’67 referendum granted Indigenous Australians the right to vote at the federal level. However, that had already been done in 1962 with an amendment to the electoral act. Nor did the referendum grant Indigenous people Australian citizenship, which had occurred two decades earlier with the Nationality and Citizenship Act 1948.

When the Constitution came into force upon Federation, Section 51 empowered the Commonwealth to make laws in relation to ‘people of any race, other than the Aboriginal race in any state, for whom it was deemed necessary to make special laws’. Section 127 stated that: ‘in reckoning the numbers of people of the Commonwealth, or of a State or other part of the Commonwealth, aboriginal natives shall not be counted’.

In practice, these sections meant that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people were not recognised as part of the Australian population. The impact of this was dispossession, oppression and control over First Nations peoples' lives. It also meant the states could make laws regarding First Nations peoples, while Federal Parliament could not.

Campaigners - Australians from all walks of life - who came together with First Nations peoples knew change was needed. They had long been pushing for greater federal involvement in Indigenous affairs. 

In the 1950s and 1960s, the campaigners and activists had organised petition drives and drawn attention to numerous examples of discrimination and segregation across the country, ensuring that the appalling treatment and the oppression of Indigenous peoples must change.

In 1967, Australian Parliament unanimously passed the Constitution Alteration (Aboriginals) Bill 1967, which allowed for a referendum to be called. 

The referendum asked whether two references (Section 51 and Section 127) in the Australian Constitution should be removed.

Almost 94 per cent of Australians voted in the referendum, with the sections relating to Indigenous Australians winning a majority in favour in every state. Overall, 90.77 per cent of the public voted ‘Yes’ – the highest ‘Yes’ vote in any referendum in Australian history.

The Constitutional amendments were a watershed moment, with a significant symbolic and practical legacy.