This is a transcript which was delivered on the Stibbard-me-Timbers show on the 1st of February relating to the constitutional referendum happening in 2013. We spent about 5 minutes 40 seconds talking about it.
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(Joel) - Well I've been doing a bit of research and looked into the referendum that is going to be held next year and it's on Aboriginal representation in the constitution which is missing and I'll read out a couple of sections from it which got me really alarmed and section 25 of our constitution says
For the purpose of the last section which basically describes the voting rights of people one person per vote idea and with a minimum of 5 seats for any State. Basically it says for the purpose of that section which is Section 24:
"If by law of any State all persons of any State are disqualified from voting at elections for the more numerous House of the Parliament of the State, then, in reckoning the number of the people of the State or the Commonwealth, persons of the race resident in that State should not be counted."
So basically it's saying that under the current part of the Constitution there's a provision in there that can actually discount votes being counted on the basis of race.
And then there's another section, Section 51 which is Legislative Powers of the Parliament:
"The Parliament shall, subject to the Constitution, have power to make laws for the peace, order, and good government of the Commonwealth with respect to:-
(Sub-Section 26) The People of any race, for whom it is deemed necessary to make special laws."
So basically what this referendum is going to do is allow us to put a cross through those sections which are basically in my opinion deemed (when they had wrote the constitution at the beginning of federation in 1901)
(Tim) - Very Very Old
(Joel) - It is, it's quite antiquated so basically I'm saying that since that's been written we've had a referendum in 1967 to recognise Aborigines in our Census and since then we've had Malcolm Fraser welcome refugees into Australia when he was Prime Minister as well as the Mabo and Wik High Court decisions in the late 80's and early 90's so basically it's showing that we've moved on from there and you know to count any race could also mean not just Aboriginal races, it could mean any race that's not Caucasian. So anyway I thought I'd mention that on radio and … We've also of course had Sorry Day which was delivered by Kevin Rudd in 2008 and I think, you know, making our next step is to put the line through these sections in the Constitution.
So anyway, if you are interested you can find out more by visiting a website www.YouMeUnity.org.au (http://www.youmeunity.org.au/) and you can get involved in the conversation there if it's something that interests you. It is something that interests me.
(Tim) - So it's good of you to open the door so people can go on to the website now and really get involved.
(Joel) - And yeah, and have a look at our whole constitution which is going to have the opportunity of being looked at and so spread the word around and educate yourself and share with your friends and get the discussion happening.
(Tim) - Well we do live in a democracy which is based on people's voices and nothing's going to get changed if nobody says anything.
(Joel) - That's it.
(Tim) - So we need to speak up about these things and we need to be as educated as we possibly can. And I need to read up about it because I'm passionate about that kind of thing as well.
(Joel) - Yes I think it's just a good time to get the discussion happening now and with a view to get a question up and it's hard, you need a lot of support, you need support from both major political parties on the issue because they don't get passed unless you get bi-partisan support. Only 8 of 44 (referenda) have been passed so I think it's a good time to get the discussion happening.
And on that related topic, I thought I'd play a Yothu Yindi song. This is from the early 90's, it's called Treaty.
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Stibbard-me-Timbers is a fortnightly show on North West FM (Melbourne) every second Wednesday at 4.30pm. It features local musicians and songwriters and is facilitated by Joel Stibbard and Tim Woods.
You can stream our show on rotation with Radio Roarhouse every second Wednesday by visiting http://www.northwestfm.org
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