Australian Government Policies and Impact
Added on 2020-02-24
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Running head: COMMUNITY RECOGNITIONCommunity RecognitionName of the Student:Name of the University:Author’s Note:
1COMMUNITY RECOGNITIONBefore the settlement of Europeans in Australia, Aboriginal and Torres Strait IslanderPeople were not considered deserving of the rights of humanity and they were deprived of thecitizenship of Australia. The constitution of Australia was drafted during this time. TheAboriginal people were also not involved in the discussion where it was discussed how a newnation will be created on their Ancestral territory (Garling 2013). These Aboriginal people werenot even mentioned when the constitution of Australia was framed. The Australian constitutiondoes not recognize the rights of the Aboriginal people. However the process of AboriginalRecognition can help the Aboriginal people to a certain extent to continue their struggle forAboriginal rights and self-determination. The Aboriginal community has to struggle foremployment, their educations needs are not fulfilled, they live in rural areas and their health isnot taken care of. The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people continue to facediscrimination from the Western immigrants in Australia (Short 2016).The British invaded Australia and colonized the country and the Aboriginal and TorresIsland community never received sovereign rights in Australia. However the concept ofAboriginal Recognition in the constitution of the country can help these indigenous Australiansin multiple of ways. However, indigenous leaders of the country do not want a mere recognitionin the constitution. They want their own and separate representative body which will help themin their struggle of rights and self-determination. The Aboriginal and Torres Islanderscommunity feel that their children are continuously alienated from their families and the youthsof the community are deprived of their rights. A mere recognition in the constitution might nothelp the community to obtain their sovereign rights. The Aboriginal community wants a FirstNations Voice to be established in the constitution of Australia. The members of the communityfeel that their youths are endangered and they need to be protected from the discrimination from
2COMMUNITY RECOGNITIONthe immigrants of the Western nations. The Aboriginal community and the Torres Strait Islanderpeople demand for reforms in the Australian constitution which will empower all members oftheir community (Morphy 2013).They have the firm conviction that only when they have fullcontrol of their destiny, then only their children and the youth members of the community willhave a protected future and will flourish. The Aboriginal community demands a “voice” in theparliament and feels that mere recognition in the Australian constitution will not be enough toprotect their rights. Hundreds of members of the community have travelled to Uluru and tried toreach a consensus on whether they need a referendum or a constitutional recognition will besufficient for them to continue their struggle for sovereign rights. The Aboriginal and the TorresIslander community have demanded a model for change. The members of the communitycontinued their discussion for six months and they reached the consensus that they do not wantmere acknowledgement but also they firmly want for themselves a treaty and a justicecommission. The Commonwealth country Australia is the only nation which does not have treatyto protect the rights of Aboriginal people (Glaskin and Weiner 2013).There is the problem in thedetermination of the belonging to the continuing cultures of the Aboriginal Torres Strait Islanderpeoples. The unstructured nature of the ‘culture’ raises the concern among the group that theindigenous people of Australia will be given preference over the non-indigenous residents inmany legal circumstances. There has to be the recognition of these people in a symbolicdeclaration, which is outside the Constitution. However, there has to be constitutionallyestablished body of the indigenous leaders to give an opinion to the Parliament on the affairs ofthe Indigenous people (Johnston et al., 2013). The discrimination of the non-indigenousAustralians against the indigenous people has reduced since the impact of the ‘Act ofrecognition’. Indigenous Australians have not been recognized as the sovereign people or offered
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