The Australian Constitution on Indigenous Recognition

Running Head: THE AUSTRALIAN CONSTITUTION ON INDIGENOUS RECOGNITION
THE AUSTRALIAN CONSTITUTION ON INDIGENOUS RECOGNITION
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1THE AUSTRALIAN CONSTITUTION ON INDIGENOUS RECOGNITION
Introduction
Natives and racism have long drawn conflict since the birth of modern Australia. In order
to establish the white supremacy the European settlers are vehemently isolated the native
inhabitants in Australia. In fact, Australia became predominantly a prerogative for the Europeans
which excluded the right of the aboriginals (McAllister et al. 2016). The Constitutional
manifestation and the government policies further strengthened the practice of discrimination
and facilitated it to become official. In this regards, Constitution played the pivotal role in
declaring racism virtually an official purpose of the government. The issue of aboriginals and
Torres Strait Islanders added a new complexion on that matter. Therefore, the purpose of this
research is to figure out the influence of the Constitution for inciting the people in performing
racism and identify the barriers regarding the recognition of the aboriginals (Habermas 2018). In
this regards, the principle question of this essay is that what are the constitutional barriers
responsible for recognizing the Australian aboriginals?
Discussion
For conducting a successful research, the essay is going to illustrate a number of risk
factors that are enabling and escalating the exercise of racism across the Australian state.
Constitution
According to the Australian Constitution, the aboriginals have little rights and less
freedom in relation to the state craft. While looking to the retrospective of the issue, it can be
argued that since the implementation of the new constitution in 1901, the authority never
mentioned anything about the aboriginals of the country (Taylor 2018). The same notes have

2THE AUSTRALIAN CONSTITUTION ON INDIGENOUS RECOGNITION
been vibrated in the statement of a former attorney general of Australian Court who told that it
was the agenda of the Australian political authority to shut the voice of native countrymen in
order to establish their own history. A far sighted manifestation was lingered with the adaptation
of the draft of the constitution which was succeeded to set up white supremacy in that continent
(Dreher, McCallum and Waller 2016). In fact, the repeal of the Racial Discrimination Act in
1975 further legitimized the custom of discrimination (Rudge 2015). Furthermore, even in
present times there are some notorious acts prevalent in the Australian Constitution which
prohibits the natives to get rights and recognition. For an instance, section 25 of the Australian
Constitution allows the country to restrain individuals from the electoral proceedings because of
their race (Johns and McCosker 2015). The effect of such discriminatory act can be so harmful
for the aboriginals that only recognition will not be able to eradicate racism from its roots.
According to the UN Convention on social equality it can be stated that no country or no state
can enact discriminatory policies or neither support any such practice (humanrights.gov.au.
2018). On the contrary, in Australia the constitution was entitled to continue bigotry and racism.
Despite all the efforts to retain the use of such discriminatory act there were also some initiatives
to eradicate racism. During his term as a Prime Minister in 2014 Tony Abbott was interested to
introduce the Free Speech Bill and wanted an in deep revision of the Racial Discrimination Act.
Instead of doing this he had faced immense pressure from the conservative political forum of
Australia. As a result of that he had to turn down the proposal (Brennan 2018).
Political Parties
Political parties play a pivotal role in manifesting the discourses of racism in Australia.
Most of the political leaders irrespective of their party agenda directly or indirectly give support
to the public tradition of racism. In fact, the central electoral system also follows such custom.

3THE AUSTRALIAN CONSTITUTION ON INDIGENOUS RECOGNITION
Historically, in the post Second World War years Australia has witnessed a change in national
government for only seven times. The malpractice in Australian electoral proceedings has come
to an end when Tony Abbott became the Prime Minister in 2013 (Robinson 2015). The National-
Liberal coalition was effectively maximizing their votes by promising a better alternative for the
Australians. Despite of this political upside down the Abbott government was failed to change
the core perception of the Australian people regarding racism. The complexities of the Australian
electoral system also help the authority to manipulate the citizens as well. However, the
indigenous people do not have the right to participate in voting. It is because of the government
less concern about the native Australians. Perhaps it is a deliberate move by the government in
order to isolate the aboriginal citizens of Australia, so that they will never be treated the same as
the mainstream population (Baidawi 2017). In fact, the government set up an expert panel for the
recognition of the aboriginals and the Torres Strait Islanders (pmc.gov.au. 2018). However, no
such development has been confirmed yet. In addition to this, it can be argued that the Australian
government has no legislation to support the property rights of the native people. Therefore, all
the lands are occupied by the white people of the country where the aboriginals are the actual
owner of the lands.
Social Impacts
Society is always considered to be an influential element of the political behaviour. In
response to that, biopolitics becomes a new determinant for democratization. The civic culture is
a glimpse of the political environment of a country. In order to understand this, a clear image of
the Australian society has to be identified. The essence of racism and discrimination is bestowed
in the society itself (McCallum, Waller and Dreher 2016). The government policies and the
constitutional justifications further facilitated the process of discrimination. The educational