Aboriginal politics
Learn about the Stolen Generations, get to know some Aboriginal politicians and explore essential topics such as the NT intervention or apartheid in Australia.
Selected statistics
- 3
- House of Representative members Aboriginal people could have if they were represented according to their percentage of Australia's population. [1] Number of Senators: 1.
- 15
- Minimum number of Aboriginal candidates in the 2010 Federal election. [1]
-
32% - Percentage of Australians who trust the media. Same figure for all surveyed countries: 57%. [2]
-
37% - Percentage of Australians who trust the government. Same figure for all surveyed countries: 41%. [2]
-
89% - Northern Territory voter turnout in 1996, assisted by the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Electoral Information Service (ATSIEIS) which ensured Aboriginal people were on the electoral roll. [3]
-
68% - Voter turnout in 2010. John Howard had scrapped the ATSIEIS in 1996 after his election. [3]
-
70% - Percentage of Australians who think improving Aboriginal living conditions should be a high or very high priority for the government. [4]
- 1984
- Year it became compulsory for Aboriginal people to vote.
-
58% - Percentage of surveyed Australians saying that Australian politicians do not know enough about Aboriginal history and culture. [4]
-
52% - Percentage of Australians who think Australian politicians have not learned from past successes and failures in Aboriginal policy. [4]
List of articles
A guide to Australia's Stolen Generations
More on this topic:
"We will listen carefully"—Australian Prime Minister puts Aboriginal people first
1946 Pilbara strike - Australia's longest strike
A First Nations Voice to Parliament
Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander flags
Aboriginal politicians
Constitutional recognition of Aboriginal people
Do we have apartheid in Australia?
Life in a prescribed community: "People have given up"
National anthem: Advanced, Aboriginal & Fair?
Northern Territory Emergency Response (NTER) - "The Intervention"
Northern Territory Intervention timeline
Paul Keating's Redfern speech
The 2016 Redfern Statement
Walk-off at Wave Hill: Birth of Aboriginal land rights
Was the NT Intervention successful?
Who owns Australia?
Why Aboriginal politics fail
I clearly recollect the Prime Minister of Australia, Mr Gough Whitlam, standing before 60 of us Aboriginal people and asking that we tell him what we wanted from his government rather than 'what we think is best for you'. No other Prime Minister had ever made that statement and nobody since, including Kevin Rudd.
— Chicka Dixon, Aboriginal activist and humanitarian [5]
Story: Like in a James Bond thriller
Stephen Hagan, an Aboriginal academic, tells how he felt when he had to do business at an office for Aboriginal-specific services. [6]
"I had cause to visit a Indigenous-specific office in Brisbane with a relative to speak to a public servant and was appalled to observe the process we had to go through in securing a face-to-face meeting.
We had to press a button on a blank wall - there was no Indigenous art decor to speak of or sitting room to take a seat in - and wait for an anonymous voice to come over the intercom to direct us to another floor where someone observing our movement on a security camera continued to direct us through slowly opening doors.
At the end of a series of manoeuvres that wouldn't look out of place in a James Bond thriller, we arrived at our destination to be greeted by a non-Indigenous public servant in a most uninviting meeting room.
I shook my head and knew at that instant why Indigenous clients don't visit these offices..."