Referendums to be held on Saturday, 27th May, 1967

Referendums to be held on Saturday, 27th May, 1967 ... on the proposed laws for the alteration of the Constitution entitled Constitution alteration (Parliament) 1967 and Constitution alteration (Aboriginals) 1967.

The Referendum sought to amend two sections of the constitution related to Aboriginal Australians. The first amendment related to Section 51 paragraph xxvi that stated, "The Parliament shall, subject to this Constitution, have power to make laws for the peace, order, and good government of the Commonwealth with respect to: .... (xxvi) The people of any race, other than the aboriginal race in any state, for whom it is deemed necessary to make special laws." The referendum proposed deleting the reference to 'the aboriginal race' as it was deemed discriminatory and denied the Commonwealth Parliament the opportunity to make special laws for Aboriginal people even if they were of an affirmative nature. The second amendment proposed repealing section 127 of the Constitution, "In reckoning the numbers of the people of the Commonwealth, or of a state or other part of the Commonwealth, aboriginal natives shall not be counted."

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