Chance to give Aborigines the vote passed up
By DAVID KEHOE
The Menzies Cabinet in 1961 passed up an opportunity to give Aborigines the vote in federal elections despite strong pressure in Parliament for the measure to be put into law.
The Interior Minister, Gordon Freeth, told Cabinet on March 27, that the Commonwealth Electoral Bill before the House of Representatives should be amended to enfranchise up to 26,000 Aborigines in Queensland, Western Australia and the Northern Territory.
Aborigines in NSW, Victoria and South Australia could vote federally as the Commonwealth Electoral Act since 1949 allowed them to enrol and vote for a federal election if they were entitled to vote in state lower House elections, or had been a member of the defence forces.
The new Bill before the house, among other things, removed voting restrictions on a number of “aboriginal natives” from Asia, Africa and certain Pacific islands but said nothing about Aborigines.
“This means there are no restrictions on the voting rights of Aborigines living in NSW, Victoria, South Australia or the ACT,” Mr Freeth said.
“On the other hand, Aborigines in Queensland, Western Australia and the Northern Territory are, for the most part, ineligible,” he said.
Cabinet decided in late 1960, it would not include Aborigines in the amendments because it was concerned disenfranchised Aborigines would not “understand or desire such a privilege.”
The Cabinet then feared this would lead to Aborigines being prosecuted for failing to enrol and vote.
In an attempt to prod Cabinet into action, Mr Freeth raised the spectre of the ALP making Aborigines’ right to vote an election issue in the general election, due by the end of 1961.
“In the current state of emotion on this subject of racial discrimination Cabinet might feel it desirable to grant full voting rights to all Aborigines, “Mr Freeth said in a March 23 submission.
However, Cabinet on April 11 baulked at the invitation.
It refused to amend the Bill.
Instead, it proposed a Parliamentary Joint Select Committee to study whether voting rights should be extended to disenfranchised Aborigines.
Fortunately, Aborigines did not have to wait long.
Whatever opposition there was in the Cabinet dissipated after the Menzies Government sneaked back by 110 votes in the December 9, 1961, election.
A Bill was passed in 1962 giving Aborigines the right to vote in federal elections.
The Canberra Times, Thursday, January 2, 1992
© AAP