By Rabu, 21 Juni 2023 – 12:05 WIB
Sydney – Australia‘s parliament on Monday inaugurated and paved the way for a historic referendum on Aboriginal rights, with voters set to decide if the Indigenous population gets a dedicated voice in national policymaking.
The Senate passed referendum legislation 52-19, allowing Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to set a date for a vote, which is now expected by year’s end.
The referendum will ask Australians whether they support changing the constitution to include a “Vote for Parliament”, a committee that can advise parliament on matters affecting Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
“Parliament passed this law, but it was the people who made history,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said during the press conference after the bill was passed.
The referendum is expected to take place before the end of the year, although Aboriginal people have yet to set a date, “This is your time, your chance, your opportunity to be part of making history,” he said.
Kepala Suku Aborigin Yunupingu meninggal dunia
Aboriginal Australians represent about 3 percent of Australia’s population of nearly 26 million people, but make up more than a quarter of the incarcerated population, according to official data. Many are jailed for minor crimes.
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About a third of indigenous Australians, thousands of whom were killed after the British arrived in Australia, and own land under the concept of terra nullius, the Latin legal term for “land owned by no one”, live below the poverty line.
