On May 27th 1967, the referendum approved two amendments to the Australian constitution regarding discrimination towards Indigenous Australians. The amendment of section 57 was to make laws for all Australian people, including Indigenous Australians (who were previously excluded). And the repealing of section 127 was to take account of Aboriginal people in determining the population of Australia. (Formerly, Indigenous people had been haphazardly included in the census but not counted for the purposes of Commonwealth funding grants to the states (Australian Bureau of Statistics)). The referendum also asked voters to consider another amendment, known as the nexus question, concerning section 24 of the Constitution which stipulates that the House of Representatives must always be the size of the senate. This proposal was rejected by the voters with only 40% of the vote nationally, compared with a whopping 90% vote for the change to the Australian Constitution concerning Aboriginal people.
However, a change in the Constitution was initially not a popular decision within Government and did not come about quickly. The Menzies Government strongly resisted calls for a referendum in reference to Indigenous people. It wasn’t until 1965 when New South Wales exposed racial discrimination to a much higher degree, when it was finally thought that some action was necessary, yet still it proposed very little change. Menzies informed federal parliament that the government had decided to hold a referendum which proposed to repeal section 127, though this didn’t include amendment of section 51. It was Snedden who first submitted to the Cabinet that section 51 should be amended as well, however it was evident that he had no interest in the Commonwealth acquiring new legislative power but rather his interest lay in a perceived need to address public opinion. His opinion was that ‘it would […] be politically inexpedient, in the present climate of public opinion, to put any...