Voting rights of Indigenous Australians

Queensland and Western Australia effectively removed voting rights for Indigenous Australians in the late-19th century.

From 1949, Aboriginal people could vote at the federal level if they were enfranchised under a State law or were a current or former member of the defence forces.

[3] Voter education for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people began in the Northern Territory.

[13] It was acknowledged that Indigenous people were British subjects under the English common law and were entitled to the rights of that status.

Accordingly, Indigenous men were not specifically denied the right to vote except by later legislation in Queensland and Western Australia.

In South Australia, most Indigenous people did not meet the requirement that all voters reside at a particular address for a specified period.

[18] Queensland gained self-government in 1859, extending voting rights in 1872 to include all British male subjects over the age of 21.

)[1] Western Australia gained self-government in 1890 and males were entitled to vote if they met a property qualification.

[21][14] In 1962, Western Australia enfranchised Indigenous Australians and those of Asian, African or Pacific Islander descent.

The Act also denied the vote to native people of Asia, Africa and the Pacific Islands except New Zealand.

It is not clear whether that section was intended to be an ongoing provision, or only an interim measure for state electors enrolled at the time of federation.

Specifically, only people of full Indigenous ancestry or of mixed race "in whom the aboriginal blood preponderates" were limited through the Commonwealth Franchise Act.

In practice, some local electoral officials may have denied enrolment to a broader range of Indigenous people than those formally excluded.

However, progress was limited; in 1941, Victor Turner, the Chief Electoral Officer, wrote to his departmental head Joseph Carrodus that "no responsible authority would seriously advocate the grant of all political and other rights [...] to aboriginals generally.