by their white Australian community. However, much progress has beenThe aboriginals of Australia have long being ignored and disadvantaged made since the 18th and 19th century, where the indigenous people of Australia were completely silenced and taken for granted. During the last 35 to 40 years, the Australian government have acted on the poor quality of aboriginal life by improving their rights and equality as Australians. Despite the enormous amount of government initiatives to endeavour to further the indigenous life, it is correct to say that the Aboriginals are still the most disadvantaged group in Australia. As non-indigenous fellow Australian citizens, are we fooling ourselves to think that the government has done as much as necessary to help Aboriginals lead better lives? Are these government schemes only helping to lead the public view to think that the government is facilitating the Aborigines lives, so that we won't feel any more guilt for our past? Achieving the amount of parity we need for our nation between the whites and blacks of Australians I don't believe will ever be accomplished, due to the harsh history we posses. To reinforce this point of view, I will be looking at a number of government proposals that have contributed to improving the quality of aboriginal life, and the way in which indigenous Australians are nevertheless still extremely disadvantaged compared to their fellow Australian citizens. The government initiatives that will be examined include, the 1967 referendum that assisted in breaking aboriginal prejudice, the land rights debates, Government acts and associations that have been established to improve the quality of life for Aboriginals, and the reconciliation process between white and black Australians.

The constitution that was established in 1901 at federation did not allow the government to make laws for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people of Australia and did not ensure that they were counted in the census. It took a long 10 year crusade by Aboriginal people and their supporters before both sides of parliament agreed to hold a referendum on the 27 May 1967 (Healey 2006). The referendum of 1967 was a very important civil rights movement based on two reasons: it separated two instances of racial discrimination from Australia's most important legal and political document, the Australian Constitution; and its resounding victory can be viewed as a vote in favour of the principle of non-discrimination (Chesterman 2005). Australians went to the poll to vote on two referenda questions based on whether or not to change two sections that were currently in the Australian Constitution. The two acts under scrutiny were:

"51. The Parliament shall, subject to th...

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