A Voice to parliament is neither new nor exotic. It’s proved, however, to be a long and frustrating road for those seeking it.
Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time.In the year 1937, William Cooper, an Indigenous man with a snowy moustache and a steady gaze, sent a petition to the Australian parliament, requesting that it be forwarded to the King.
In fact, Cooper’s petition of 87 years ago was merely the first of a number of formal approaches over many decades. Each was rebuffed in one way or another. One of the reasons the cabinet decided against forwarding Cooper’s request to the King was because, under the Constitution of the time, the federal parliament did not have the power to make a law for Aboriginal representation in parliament.
Cooper later worked all over Queensland, South Australia, NSW and Victoria labouring, shearing, droving and horse-breaking, while also living at Maloga and nearby Cummeragunja missions. The cabinet document noted rather snootily that “According to the names it is reasonable to assume that many of the signatories are not full-blooded”.“to prevent the extinction of the aboriginal race;“To afford aboriginal representation in the Federal Parliament, either by an aboriginal or a white person known to have studied the need of aboriginals and to be in sympathy with them.
More than half a century after four young Aboriginal men planted a beach umbrella opposite Canberra’s Old Parliament House, the tent embassy remains.The referendum was lost, including what appeared to be an afterthought concerning legislating for Aboriginal people. A Referendum Council was jointly appointed by then-prime minister Malcolm Turnbull and opposition leader Bill Shorten on December 7, 2015, to advise on how a successful referendum might be held to recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in the Constitution.The council chose the four principles established by the expert panel to guide its assessment of proposed models for constitutional recognition.
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