Indigenous Australians The wellbeing of
Indigenous Australians is an ongoing issue in Australia. There is significant disparity in health between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. In 2010–2012, the estimated life expectancy at birth for
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander males was 69.1 years, and for females 73.7 years. This was 10.6 years lower than the life expectancy of non-Indigenous males, and 9.5 years lower than that of non-Indigenous females. A 2006 study by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare showed that 70% of the Aboriginal population die before the age of 65, compared with 20% of non-Indigenous Australians. Additionally, the suicide rate among Aboriginal Australians is almost three times higher (at 4.2%) than the national average (1.5%). set up in
Canberra by activist agitating for the rights of Indigenous Australians. The roots of the present condition can be traced to the historical treatment of Aboriginal people and the dispossession of land that occurred following
European colonisation of Australia, where a combination of disease, loss of land (and thus food resources) and violence decimated the Aboriginal population. Later, from the 1830s, colonial governments established the now controversial offices of the
Protector of Aborigines in an effort to avoid mistreatment of Indigenous peoples and conduct government policy towards them.
Christian churches in Australia sought to convert Aboriginal people, and were often used by government to carry out welfare and
assimilation policies. The
Caledon Bay crisis of 1932–4 saw one of the last incidents of
frontier violence, which began when the spearing of Japanese poachers who had been molesting
Yolngu women was followed by the killing of a policeman. As the crisis unfolded, national opinion swung behind the Aboriginal people involved, and the first appeal on behalf of an Indigenous Australian to the
High Court of Australia was launched. Elsewhere around this time, activists like Sir
Douglas Nicholls were commencing their campaigns for Aboriginal rights within the established Australian political system and the age of frontier conflict closed. In 1962, the
Menzies government's
Commonwealth Electoral Act provided that all
Indigenous Australians should have the right to enrol and vote at federal elections (prior to this, Indigenous people in Queensland, Western Australia and some in the Northern Territory had been excluded from voting unless they were ex-servicemen). The successor
Holt government called the
1967 Referendum which removed the discriminatory clause in the
Australian Constitution which excluded
Aboriginal Australians from being counted in the census – the referendum was one of the few to be overwhelmingly endorsed by the Australian electorate (over 90% voted "yes"). From the 1960s, Australian writers began to re-assess European assumptions about Aboriginal Australia – with works including
Geoffrey Blainey's landmark history
Triumph of the Nomads (1975) and the books of historian
Henry Reynolds., Parliament Gardens,
Fitzroy, VictoriaFrom the late 1960s a movement for
Aboriginal land rights developed, especially in South Australia under the Premiership of
Don Dunstan. This era saw vast reformation in regards to land rights, anti-discrimination and personal rights. In the mid-1960s, one of the earliest Aboriginal graduates from the
University of Sydney,
Charles Perkins, helped organise
freedom rides into parts of Australia to expose discrimination and inequality. In 1966, the
Gurindji people of Wave Hill station (owned by the
Vestey Group) commenced strike action led by
Vincent Lingiari in a quest for equal pay and recognition of land rights. The
Whitlam Labor and
Fraser Liberal governments instigated the
Aboriginal Land Rights Act 1976, which, while limited to the
Northern Territory, affirmed "inalienable"
native title to some traditional lands. In 1985, the
Hawke government returned ownership of
Uluru (formerly known as Ayers Rock) to the local Pitjantjatjara Aboriginal people. Indigenous Australians began to take up representation in Australian parliaments during the 1970s. In 1971
Neville Bonner of the
Liberal Party was appointed by the Queensland Parliament to replace a retiring senator, becoming the first Aboriginal in Federal Parliament. Bonner was returned as a Senator at the 1972 election and remained until 1983.
Hyacinth Tungutalum of the
Country Liberal Party in the
Northern Territory and
Eric Deeral of the
National Party of Queensland, became the first Indigenous people elected to territory and state legislatures in 1974. In 1976, under the recommendation of Premier
Don Dunstan, Sir
Douglas Nicholls was appointed
Governor of South Australia, becoming the first Aboriginal to hold vice-regal office in Australia.
Aden Ridgeway of the
Australian Democrats served as a senator during the 1990s, but no Indigenous person was elected to the House of Representatives, until West Australian
Liberal Ken Wyatt, in August 2010. Prior to the calling of a
2007 federal election, the then Prime Minister, John Howard, revisited the idea of bringing a referendum to seek recognition of Indigenous Australians in the Constitution (his government first sought to include recognition of Aboriginal peoples in the Preamble to the Constitution in a 1999 referendum). The Labor opposition initially supported the idea; however,
Kevin Rudd withdrew this support just prior to the election. In 2007, Prime Minister
John Howard and Indigenous Affairs Minister
Mal Brough launched the
Northern Territory National Emergency Response. In response to the
Little Children are Sacred Report into allegations of child abuse among Indigenous communities in the Territory, the government banned alcohol in prescribed communities in the Northern Territory; quarantined a percentage of welfare payments for essential goods purchasing; despatched additional police and medical personnel to the region; and suspended the permit system for access to Indigenous communities. The policy was largely maintained under the
Rudd and
Gillard governments. Notable contemporary Indigenous rights campaigners have included: federal politicians Ridgeway and Wyatt, lawyer
Noel Pearson; academic
Marcia Langton; and
Australians of the Year Lowitja O'Donoghue (1984),
Mandawuy Yunupingu (1992),
Cathy Freeman (1998) and
Mick Dodson (2009). As of 2016, there were five Indigenous people serving in the
Federal Parliament of Australia. In 2016–17, the estimated direct expenditure per person was $44,886 for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians, which was around twice the rate for non-Indigenous Australians ($22,356). An annual report called "
Closing the Gap" is presented to the parliament by the office of Prime Minister and Cabinet and it details the gap in multiple facets of life disproportionately affecting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people compared to non-Indigenous including education, life expectancy, infant mortality, employment, housing and criminal justice. Despite a decade of action though, the life expectancy gap continues to widen with only marginal if any improvements in other sectors of Indigenous affairs and according to Oxfam "they are still denied the same access to these services that non-Indigenous people take for granted". On 30 October 2019, Ken Wyatt,
Minister for Indigenous Australians in the
Morrison government, announced the commencement of a "co-design process" aimed at providing an Indigenous voice to government. The Senior Advisory Group (SAG) is co-chaired by Professor
Tom Calma , Chancellor of the
University of Canberra, and Professor Dr
Marcia Langton, Associate Provost at the
University of Melbourne, and comprises a total of 20 leaders and experts from across the country. There was some skepticism about the process from the beginning, with the criticism that it did not honour the
Uluru Statement from the Hearts plea to "walk with us in a movement of the Australian people for a better future". According to
Michelle Grattan, "...it is notable that it is calling it a 'voice to government' rather than a 'voice to parliament' ". Prime Minister
Scott Morrison rejected the proposal in the
Uluru Statement for a voice to parliament to be put into the
Australian constitution; instead, the voice will be enshrined in legislation. The government also said it would run a referendum during its present term about recognising Indigenous people in the constitution "should a consensus be reached and should it be likely to succeed”.
Immigrants and asylum seekers Australia is an immigrant nation with a large and longstanding multi-ethnic migration program. Historically, from the 1890s to the 1950s the country adhered to the
White Australia Policy, which effectively barred or impeded people of non-European descent from
immigrating to Australia. The policy was dismantled by successive governments after
World War II, and from the 1970s successive governments officially supported
multiculturalism. Australia is a signatory to the
Refugee Convention and a component of the Australian immigration program is devoted to providing protection for
refugees. The majority of refugees received by Australia are identified and referred by the
UNHCR. The Special Humanitarian Program further offers refuge to people subject to "substantial discrimination amounting to gross violation of human rights in their home country" and who are supported by a proposer within Australia. In 2009–10 a total of 13,770 visas were granted under these categories. The annual figure remained roughly stable for the years between 2004–2010 and accepted applicants from such nations as Myanmar, Iraq, Bhutan, Afghanistan and six African countries. To varying degrees of success, recent Australian governments have sought to discourage unauthorised arrivals by people seeking refugee status in Australia by maintaining a system of
mandatory detention for processing of people who arrive without a visa. In 1992, Australia adopted a policy of under which the Australian government could
detain any person in the country without a valid
visa. In 1994 the detention of 'unlawful non-citizens' was made mandatory. During the late 1990s and early 2000s, these unauthorised arrivals, popularly referred to as "
boat people", were transferred to one of the
Australian immigration detention facilities on the Australian mainland, or to
Manus Island or
Nauru as part of the
Pacific Solution. These offshore processing and mandatory detention policies have attracted criticism. In 2014, the
Australian Human Rights Commission published a report, which found that many basic rights outlined in the
Convention on the Rights of the Child were denied to children living in immigration detention. Australia's immigration regime has attracted the ire of the
United Nations Human Rights Council for "massive abuse [...] of irregular migrants", by suspending
habeas corpus, separating families,
indefinite detention of irregular migrants and inadequate reception/medical centres. and whilst Australia "remains in active discussions" with the Refugees and Safe, Orderly & Regular Migration components of the
Global Compacts on Migration, Prime Minister
Morrison stated that the compact will "fundamentally weaken Australia's strong border protection" and will not sign it.
Medical evacuation (Medevac) laws have since been passed by parliament. However, Medevac laws have become a point of contention as the local Medevac centre in
Kangaroo Point,
Brisbane has sparked mass protests after becoming a
detention centre that has detained refugees in Brisbane for more than seven years.
Human Rights Watch’s annual human rights report outlined issues in Australia spanning refugee policy, the treatment of Indigenous people and climate change action. The federal government's failure to address the cruel treatment of asylum seekers despite international pressure tarnishes the country's global standing.
LGBTI people Historical persecution Prior to European contact, there were no known legal or social punishments for engaging in homosexual activity. Sex seems to have been a very open topic among the
Indigenous people. Among the
Arrernte people, sex plays were particularly ubiquitous, even among young children who would play "mothers and fathers" in a very literal sense. They would typically mimic the sex acts they saw their parents and other adults perform. These acts seem to have been performed regardless of sex. Traditions of "boy-wives" also existed where young boys, typically 14 years of age, would serve as intimate servants of older men until they reached the age of initiation, at which point the young man would have his penis
subincised. The Indigenous people did not have the typical Western view of heterosexuality and homosexuality. As part of the
British Empire, Australian colonies inherited anti-homosexuality laws such as the
Buggery Act 1533. These provisions were maintained in criminal
sodomy laws passed by 19th century colonial parliaments, and subsequently by state parliaments after
Federation. Same-sex sexual activity between men was considered a
capital crime, resulting in the execution of people convicted of
sodomy until 1890. Different jurisdictions gradually began to reduce the
death penalty for sodomy to
life imprisonment, with Victoria the last state to reduce the penalty in 1949.
Decriminalisation In October 1973, former Prime Minister
John Gorton put forward a motion in the federal
House of Representatives that "in the opinion of this House homosexual acts between consenting adults in private should not be subject to the criminal law". All three major parties were given a
conscience vote, and the motion was passed by 64 votes to 40: However, Gorton's motion had no legal effect as the legality of homosexuality was a matter for state and territory governments. Over a 22-year span between 1975 and 1997, the states and territories gradually repealed their sodomy laws as support for gay law reform grew. to protest the
Briggs Initiative, which would have effectively banned gay and lesbian teachers in the U.S. state of
California. Nonetheless, under the premiership of Premier
Don Dunstan,
LGBT rights in South Australia expanded, and
South Australia became the first jurisdiction to decriminalise male homosexual activity on 17 September 1975, with the
Australian Capital Territory's decriminalisation, first proposed in 1973, approved by the
Fraser Federal Government with effect from 4 November 1976. The Tasmanian
Government refused to repeal its sodomy law, which led to the case of
Toonen v Australia, in which the
United Nations Human Rights Committee ruled that sodomy laws violated the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Tasmania's continued refusal to repeal the offending law led the
Keating government to pass the
Human Rights (Sexual Conduct) Act 1994, which legalised sexual activity between consenting adults throughout Australia and prohibited laws that arbitrarily interfered with the sexual conduct of adults in private. In the 1997 case of
Croome v Tasmania,
Rodney Croome applied to the
High Court of Australia to strike down the Tasmanian anti-gay law as inconsistent with federal law; after having failed to have the matter thrown out, the Tasmanian Government decriminalised homosexuality on 1 May 1997, becoming the final Australian jurisdiction to do so. In late 2010, the
Gillard Labor government announced that it was undertaking a review of federal anti-discrimination laws, with the aim of introducing a single equality act that would include sexual orientation and gender identity. In 2011, the government introduced new guidelines which would enable sex- and gender-diverse people to record their preferred gender in their passports. In March 2013,
Mark Dreyfus introduced the Sex Discrimination Amendment (Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Intersex Status) Bill, became law from
Royal Assent three days later by the
Governor-General. It became effective from 1 August 2013, making discrimination against
lesbian,
gay,
bisexual,
transgender and for the first time in the world,
intersex people, illegal at a national level. Aged care providers who are owned by religious groups would no longer be able to exclude people from aged care services based on their
LGBTI or same-sex relationship status. However, religion-based private schools and hospitals are exempt from gender identity and sexual orientation provisions. No religious exemptions exist on the basis of intersex status. A 2016
Family Court case authorising a
gonadectomy and consequential surgery on a young child attracted public commentary for disclosing those medical interventions, their rationales, and a prior
clitorectomy and
labiaplasty. In March 2017, Australian and
New Zealand community organisations issued a joint call for legal reform, including the criminalisation of deferrable
intersex medical interventions on children, an end to legal classification of sex, and improved access to peer support. == See also ==