Evolution of Australian Policy for Indigenous People

Running head: SOCIOLOGY
SOCIOLOGY
Name of the student
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Author note

SOCIOLOGY 1
Introduction
The indigenous population residing in Australia has been the marginalized and the
discriminated group of population through several decades. Over the last 100 years, there has
been several of the shifts regarding the relationship of the policy between the government of
Australia and the Indigenous people of Australia (Biddle et al., 2013). With the actions related
to federation in the year of 1901, there were some of the significant changes in the state
government policy and the legislations which had overriding influence over the Indigenous
Australians. But the involvement of the common wealth in the secondary manner through the
terms of the legislation limited the access towards the welfare rights and the citizenship of the
Indigenous people. The government of the county initiated their responsibility for the community
of people residing in the Northern Territory belonging to the Indigenous population and initiated
the intention for the protection or the advancement of the welfare of the people (Cowan, 2013).
The thesis statement of the essay argues with the events from the Australian History timeline
analyzing the evolution of the approaches of the Australian policy for the Indigenous people. The
essay furthermore highlights the relationship, the connection among the Indigenous population
and the non-indigenous population residing in Australia.
Goals of each policy or events
The two policy or the events that will be discussed in this section are below.
The commonwealth franchise Act of the year 1902- this act of the parliament of Australia defined
the uniform national criterion of voting the federation of Australia (Crowe & Stephenson, 2014).
Though this act enabled the voting rights of the inhabitant of the Australia, the commonwealth
franchise Act of 1902, removed the right of voting for the Indigenous Australians to vote in the

2SOCIOLOGY
federation election of Australia. The act denied the voting rights of the aboriginal natives of
Australia unless being entitles under the section 41 of the constitution. According to Farrell and
McAllister (2005) the half casts residing in the country were ot disqualified for voting but the
people who have the indigenous or aboriginal blood in the are disqualified.
The 1967 Referendum - This event of the policy, the referendum has been the landmark
achievement for the Indigenous Australia. With the following of the decades of the activism of
the Indigenous and the non indigenous community people and the 1902 denial of the voting
rights of the Aboriginal were abolished by the year (Sanders, 2015). The right to vote in the
federal election was secured by the electoral act. By the end of the year of 1967, the Indigenous
people residing in Australia were already legally considered as the citizens of Australia. The
referendum revealed the extension of the equal rights of the Indigenous people giving the federal
government to make laws for the Indigenous people ensuring the quality and the discriminatory.
The 1967 referendum was regarded as the symbolic turning point for the Indigenous
Australians revealing the widespread desire for the equality for the Indigenous Australians. The
referendum has the lasting impact and highlighted the changes of the approaches of the
governmental policies towards the wellbeing and the basic rights for the indigenous Australians
through the decade (Sanders, 2015). The referendum enabled the federal government to pass the
northern territory land rights act that has benefited many of the Indigenous Australians including
the exclusion of the discrimination and protection of the racial discrimination act of the year
1975. To summarize, the referendum helped the Indigenous population in Australia regarding
gaining of the equality and the rights for the protection of the community.