The Australian Constitution On Indigenous Recognition

Introduction

There are a number of factors that are responsible for influencing the political behaviour of a country. In this context, the role of social and ethnic groups is so pivotal on the backdrop of Australian constitutional amendments. The purpose of this essay is to identify the barriers of Australian Constitution in order to recognize the indigenous people of Australia (McAllister et al. 2016). In fact, the participation of Politics is also been taken into consideration in this regards. Hence, the essay will put emphasis on the different perspectives of Australian political behaviour like the role of Constitution, role of the political leaders and the response of the citizens.

Essay Plan

The essay is going to put focus on the issues regarding the recognition of the Australian aboriginals. For this, it requires a number of secondary sources in the form of research articles and books. At the same time, the government regulations are also incorporated into the discussion to make a justifiable argument over the question. Hence, there are four major points on which the essay is relied upon. The points are as follows

• The constitutional framework of Australia and how far it put impact on the Australian aboriginals.
• To analyse the role of the Australian government and politics in order to recognize the aboriginals.
• To figure out the measure of the social impacts and the traditional believes that are responsible for isolating the natives of Australia.
• To understand the motives and underpinnings through a logical argument.

Based on this discussion, the essay will start with a brief introduction that underlines the theme and the purpose of essay. The key aspects of the discussion is also became a part of the introduction. After that, the main discussion comes into place that describes the different aspects regarding the topic. At the end there is a conclusion reflects the vitality and the uniqueness of the discussion.

Discussion

The role of constitution in this regards is considered to be the primary argument. Since its independence the Australian authority does very little for the native Australians. After the completion of the Australian constitution most of the indigenous people lost their rights and freedoms due to the constitutional impositions. The native people of Australia had started their fight for freedom and justice but it did not succeed to get the adequate attention of the Constitution to amend it. In relation to this, the issue of the Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders becomes the focal point of the discussion (Taylor 2018). In the prolonged history of Australian Constitution, a number of times the authority was going to amend the Constitution but not a single time the issue of aboriginal recognition had been discussed. In fact, Australia is the only nation in the world where Constitution legalises the discrimination of population on the basis of race. It can be argued that the Constitution of Australia itself is contradicting the democratic synchronisation. Meanwhile a retrospective study of the Australian election proves the futility of the Constitution where since the Second World War the Australian people are willing to change their respective government only for seven times.

This inability of the Australian Constitution was further facilitated by the leading parties. The Liberal- National Coalition came to power after 2009 which was predominated by the Labour party (Robinson 2015). Some scholars often argued that the issue of recognising the aboriginals was delayed because the problem was bestowed in the electoral system. It cannot be overestimated by saying that isolating the aboriginals from the mainstream society was a deliberate manifestation of the political leaders since independence. In fact, an Attorney General of the Australia has reported that the ‘birth certificate’ of Australia did not mention the history of those people who inhabited the continent before European settlement (Taylor 2018). As a result of that, the Australian Constitution purposefully disqualified the voting rights of the people on the basis of race. It was more related to the ‘modern Australia’ than the reality. In this regards, the Australian court and democratic principles officially respects the UN charter on Rights of Indigenous people. However, in practice the Racial Discrimination Act of 1975 which was supposed to be protect the rights of the aboriginals has been disbanded, the result of which the government gets the access to lodge their discriminatory acts upon native Australians (Brennan 2018). On the matter of voting procedures, it can be seen that the electoral process is very complicated and dominance of the English speaking majority further perturb the process of protecting indigenous interests.

It requires a close study on the people’s perception on indigenous population. It is obvious that the state oriented discourses instigate the mainstream Australian citizen to think discriminately. It can be argued that most of the political symbols and national events if Australia share a sense of discrimination to some extent. The Australian Day and the flag of the nation are alleged to have a symbolic provocation that fosters a racial sentiment among the white inhabitants (Walter 2016). In fact the legislation and lack of government policy incite the people to continue such a discriminatory attitude towards their native brothers. Furthermore, it cannot be stated that Australia enjoys a multicultural society. Since their childhood the Australian kids are taking lesson under the state based Victorian Essential Learning Standards where not a single chapter has been allocated for native history of Australia.

Conclusion

The role of legislation and the government unwillingness lead the country towards fragile nationalism. The Australian Constitution does not want to commence any kind of native protect right. The popular discourses and people’s attitude also corroborate this fact. Moreover, it can be argued that equality is the cornerstone of democracy and the government must take the initiative to establish it. Hence it can be concluded that it is vital to understand the popular psyche and the government activities to help the aboriginals to be recognised.

Reference List

Brennan, B. 2018. Parliament must not be ‘weak-kneed’ on constitutional change for Indigenous people, senator says. ABC News. [online] Available at: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-04-05/mps-must-act-on-constitutional-change-for-indigenous-people/9618682 [Accessed 16 Apr. 2018].

McAllister, C.P., Ellen III, B.P. and Ferris, G.R., 2016. Social influence opportunity recognition, evaluation, and capitalization: Increased theoretical specification through political skill’s dimensional dynamics. Journal of Management, p.0149206316633747

Robinson, G., 2015. Regional place-based identities and party strategies at the 2013 federal election. Abbott’s gambit: the 2013 Australian federal election, pp.249-273.

Taylor, A., 2018. Making the case for constitutional reform. NEW: Emerging scholars in Australian Indigenous Studies, 2(1), pp.107-108.

Walter, M., 2016. Data politics and Indigenous representation in Australian statistics. Indigenous data sovereignty: Toward an agenda, pp.79-98.