Australian Senate paves way for landmark referendum on indigenous voice in Constitution

SYDNEY - Australia’s Senate passed legislation on Monday that paves the way for

a landmark referendum later in 2023

on whether to recognise its Indigenous people in the Constitution.

In a final vote in the Upper House of Parliament, 52 were in favour of the Bill with 19 against it, allowing the Bill to be passed with an absolute majority.

The referendum will ask Australians whether they support altering the Constitution to include Voice to Parliament, a committee that can advise Parliament on matters affecting the country’s Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders.

“Parliaments pass laws, but it’s people that make history,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said in a news conference after the vote. “This is your time, your chance, your opportunity to be a part of making history.”

Mr Albanese will have to set a referendum date, expected to be between October and December. It will be the first referendum Australians will vote on since 1999, when they rejected the establishment of a republic.

Aboriginal people make up 3.2 per cent of Australia’s population of 26 million. They track below national averages on most socio-economic measures and are not mentioned in the Constitution.

They were marginalised by British colonial rulers and not granted full voting rights until the 1960s.

Lawmakers supporting the Bill clapped and cheered as the final numbers of the vote were read out in the House.

“It is a very simple request... to be recognised in the Constitution,” Labor Party Senator Malarndirri McCarthy, an Indigenous woman, told the House. “To be included in the Constitution is a very big deal for Indigenous people.”

Support for the constitutional change has been wavering. A poll published last week showed those against the referendum were ahead for the first time, 51 per cent to 49 per cent.

To change the Constitution, the government must secure what is known as a double majority in the referendum. That means more than 50 per cent of voters nationwide, and a majority of voters in at least four of the six states must back the change.

In the past, there had been 44 proposals for constitutional change in 19 referendums, and only eight of these passed. Most notably, a 1967 referendum on Indigenous rights saw a record Yes vote.

The government has been backing the referendum and has staked significant political capital on it. Top sporting codes and several major corporations have proclaimed support for the campaign. Mr Albanese said he is confident “a positive campaign will produce a positive result”.

Groups opposing the constitutional change say it is a distraction from achieving practical and positive outcomes, and that it would divide Australians by race.

“If the ‘yes’ vote is successful, we will be divided forever,” said Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, the opposition spokesman for Indigenous affairs. The main opposition Liberal Party is asking people to vote “no” in the referendum.

Independent Indigenous Senator Lidia Thorpe, who has also been a vocal opponent of the Bill, said the change will only create a “powerless advisory body”. REUTERS