Commonwealth Elections
Some Aboriginal people voted in the very first Commonwealth election. Point McLeay, a mission station near the mouth of the Murray River, got a polling station in the 1890s and Aboriginal men and women voted there in South Australian elections and voted for the first Commonwealth Parliament in 1901. However, it was not until 1983 that indigenous Australians had equivalent voting rights to other Australians, that is compulsory voting at all Commonwealth elections.
Section 41 of the Australian Constitution on its face appears to give the right to vote in federal elections to those who have the right to vote in state elections. The Commonwealth Franchise Act 1902, provided that "No aboriginal native of Australia ... shall be entitled to have his name placed on an Electoral Roll unless so entitled under section forty-one of the Constitution". However, Sir Robert Garran, the first Solicitor-General, interpreted section 41 to give Commonwealth voting rights only to those who were already State voters in 1902, limiting those rights to a theoretical maximum of only a few hundred indigenous people.
Garran’s interpretation of section 41 was challenged in 1924 by Mitta Bullosh a Melbourne resident Indian who had been accepted as a voter by Victoria but rejected by the Commonwealth. He won his case in the District Court, and the Commonwealth government later withdrew a High Court challenge to the judge's ruling. The Electoral Act was subsequently amended. These developments were confined to British subjects of Asian origin resident in Australia. They had no effect on right to vote of Aboriginal people.
In 1949 the federal government passed an Act to confirm that all those who could vote in their states could vote in Commonwealth elections. This gave the right to vote to Aboriginal people in all states except Queensland and Western Australia.
In 1962 the Commonwealth Electoral Act was amended to give indigenous people the right to enrol and vote in Commonwealth elections irrespective of their voting rights at the state level. If and only if they were enrolled, it was compulsory to vote. However, enrolment itself was not compulsory and it was illegal under Commonwealth legislation to encourage indigenous people to enrol to vote. Any person enrolled who failed to vote could be liable to prosecution and a fine.
In 1983 the Act was amended to remove optional enrolment for indigenous people, removing all discrimination based on race in the Australian electoral system.
There is a common misconception that the 1967 referendum gave Aborigines the right to vote. However, this referendum gave the Commonwealth powers to make laws with respect to the Aboriginal people and counted them in the Census.
Read more about this topic: Voting Rights Of Australian Aborigines
Famous quotes containing the words commonwealth and/or elections:
“Was I not born in this Realm? Were my parents born in any foreign country?... Is not my Kingdom here? Whom have I oppressed? Whom have I enriched to other’s harm? What turmoil have I made to this Commonwealth that I should be suspected to have no regard of the same?”
—Elizabeth I (1533–1603)
“In my public statements I have earnestly urged that there rested upon government many responsibilities which affect the moral and spiritual welfare of our people. The participation of women in elections has produced a keener realization of the importance of these questions and has contributed to higher national ideals. Moreover, it is through them that our national ideals are ingrained in our children.”
—Herbert Hoover (1874–1964)