Australia sets date for referendum on Indigenous recognition

Australia has set Oct. 14, 2023, as the date to hold a key referendum where voters will decide whether to alter the country’s constitution to recognize its Indigenous peoples.

The referendum will seek support to establish an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voice within parliament, which would in future advise the government on issues affecting those communities.

“My fellow Australians, for many years Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have advocated for constitutional recognition through a voice,” Albanese told a press conference Sunday as he announced the date of the referendum to applause.

“Our government, along with every single state and territory government, has committed to it. Legal experts have endorsed it. People on all sides of the parliament have backed it … Now, my fellow Australians, you can vote for it,” the prime minister said.

“Referendum day will be the 14th of October. On that day, every Australian will have a once in a generation chance to bring our country together and to change it for the better,” Albanese continued as he called on “all Australians to vote yes.”

A “double majority” is needed to make a constitutional change possible. According to the Australian Electoral Commission, that means there must be a more than 50% “Yes” vote overall, but also at least four of Australia’s six states must return a majority yes vote.

It was not until May 1967 that Australians voted to change the Constitution so that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples would be counted as part of the population.

Of Australia’s 25 million residents, about 900,000 identify as Indigenous.

The proposed “Voice to Parliament” now aims to give Indigenous Australians a greater say in national policymaking, as they battle poorer health, lower incomes and higher barriers to education.

Longstanding discrimination

Indigenous Australians settled the country an estimated 65,000 years ago, according to the national museum, but have suffered widespread discrimination and oppression since the arrival of British settlers in the late 18th Century.

They were still banned from voting in some Australian states and territories until the 1960s.

The inequalities facing the Indigenous population remain stark – they have life expectancies years shorter than other Australians and are far more likely to die in police custody.

Indigenous Australians make up some 2% of the total population but, according to the Australian Law Reform Commission, constitute 27% of the prison population.

There are strong international precedents behind the Voice proposal – both Canada and Norway amended their constitutions in the 1980s to better recognize indigenous residents.