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Maori voting rights in Australia have an unusual history compared to voting rights for other non-white minorities. Male Indigenous Electoral Timeline
Australian Electoral Commission, Retrieved 30 July 2007 Prior to universal Australian Indigenous franchise, organisations such as the Australian Aborigines' League highlighted the inconsistencies in Australian law that allowed Maori voting rights (as well as old age and disability pensions, maternity bonuses and unemployment relief) but denied them to Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders.
Maori voting rights in Australia have an unusual history compared to voting rights for other non-white minorities. Male Māori Australians
Māori Australians ( mi, ngā tangata Māori i Ahitereiria) are Australians of Māori heritage. The Māori presence in Australia dates back to the 19th century when Māori travelled to Sydney to trade, acquire new technology, and learn new idea ...
were first given the vote through the Commonwealth Franchise Act 1902
The ''Commonwealth Franchise Act 1902'' was an Act of the Parliament of Australia which defined a uniform national criteria of who was entitled to vote in Australian federal elections. The Act established, in time for the 1903 Australian feder ...
, which specifically limited voting enrolment to persons of European descent, and aboriginal natives of New Zealand, in an effort to allay New Zealand's concerns about joining the Federation of Australia
The Federation of Australia was the process by which the six separate British self-governing colonies of Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia (which also governed what is now the Northern Territory), and Western A ...
. During the parliamentary debates over the Act, leading Labor Party member King O'Malley supported the inclusion of Maori, and the exclusion of Aboriginal Australians, in the franchise, arguing that "An aboriginal is not as intelligent as a Maori."
This anomalous condition remained in some jurisdictions (such as the Northern Territory) until 1962, when the ''Commonwealth Electoral Act'' superseded the earlier act.Australian Electoral Commission, Retrieved 30 July 2007 Prior to universal Australian Indigenous franchise, organisations such as the Australian Aborigines' League highlighted the inconsistencies in Australian law that allowed Maori voting rights (as well as old age and disability pensions, maternity bonuses and unemployment relief) but denied them to Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders.
See also
* Voting rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples *Suffrage in Australia
Suffrage in Australia refers to the right to vote (usually referred to as franchise) for people living in Australia, including all its six component states (before 1901 called colonies) and territories, as well as local councils. The colonies of Au ...
References
Sources
* * Political history of Australia Māori politics Australia–New Zealand relations Māori history {{Maori-stub