Dear Foxy,

Very well put indeed.

If government is silly enough to introduce racially based legislation
for aboriginal chamber or council or a treaty then they must have a sunset clause.
After 250 years with a small population there are a great many light
skinned aborigines. In another 250 years it will be hard to find a black aborigine.
The question is already being raised about if someone is aborigine.
I saw a form the other day where a white person got a benefit at 65
but an aborigine, or someone so claiming got the benefit at 50.

Now that is racism.

cont'd ...

Dear Joe,

It is not beyond this great nation to make it happen.

Shadow Minster,

The Constitution confers upon parliament a soecial
power to racially discriminate. The Race Power was
inserted, according to the contitutional convention
debates, to control and exclude the "inferior"
and "coloured" peoples. Before 1967, the power
was never used. After 1967, it has been used in
relation to Indigenous Australians.

For example -

Section 25 acknowledges that racially discriminatory
laws are permitted under the Constitution.

White Australians have always been the predominant law-
makers in our parliament, and they don't enact laws that
racially discriminate against themselves. Their ancestors
have never been denied equality on the basis of "race"
under Australian law, so their empathy for
discrimination against Indigenous Australians may in some
cases be lacking.

Sorry, Foxy, are you claiming that there SHOULD be discriminatory legislation in relation to Indigenous people ? That the possibility of Apartheid against Indigenous people should remain open ?

Surely that needs to be debated by Australians, hopefully before they are asked to vote for or against a Referendum question which only goes to reinforce such a backward move ?

Joe

//I saw a form the other day where a white person got a benefit at 65
but an aborigine, or someone so claiming got the benefit at 50.
Now that is racism.//

Now what form was that Bazz?

Hi Foxy,

The inclusion of discriminatory racially motivated sections in the Australian Constitution may have been acceptable to the dear old white gentlemen of 1901, but the world has moved on and such rubbish now needs to be removed.

Joe, you are in agreement that racially motivated rubbish in the Constitution does need to be removed, are you not?