LINDA BURNEY was ten when Australians voted in 1967 to remove the clause in the constitution that excluded aborigines from the national census. “The notion that you weren’t worthy of being counted was very painful,” she recalls. Ms Burney belongs to the Wiradjuri clan, and grew up in rural New South Wales. Last year she became the first aboriginal woman to be elected to the lower house of the federal parliament. Australians should soon get the chance to vote on another constitutional amendment concerning aboriginal rights. The new one is intended to go quite a bit further than that of 1967, in some way acknowledging aborigines as the first Australians. But just how far it should go is a matter of intense debate.
In late 2015 Malcolm Turnbull, the conservative prime minister, and Bill Shorten, the leader of the opposition Labor party, agreed to set up a council to propose a specific change to be put to a referendum....Continue reading
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