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Essay On Australian Federation

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The Commonwealth of Australia was federated on the 1st of January 1901 after continuous efforts to make ends meet between the six British colonies. Federation is "the greatest political achievement in Australian history" as stated by John Hirst, however, some flaws cannot be overlooked and remains a weakness in the history of Australia.
The type of government that was chosen was one that was extremely thorough which has helped strengthen Australia's stability. Sir Henry Parkes first established benefits from federating Australia which developed a shift in those in favour of a Federation. However, during the process of uniting Australia many were disregarded which caused a major flaw in the Federation that should have been dealt with at the …show more content…
During no time in the decade of the drafting and redrafting of the Australian Constitution were the Aboriginal or the Torres Strait Islander Peoples included or recognised. The final constitution refused to acknowledge the original custodians or grant them citizenships. In 1949, Australian Aboriginals were given the right to vote and then in 1968, the referendum was successfully changed to acknowledge the aboriginal natives as part of the population and allowed the government to make special laws for them. What should have been their right in the very beginning took over half a century to achieve. Then there was the White Policy, one of the first acts introduced and passed by the Australian Parliament, which made whoever deemed a "prohibited immigrant" to stop and perform a dictation test in a European language to prove efficiency. The Policy was created to prevent the immigration of non-Europeans in fear that they would compete against those of European background for jobs at a lower wage. When first introduced only a couple was able to pass but after 1909 no one was successful. After the decline in population and the realisation of the need for more citizens, the dictation test was no longer used after 1958. Finally, in 1975, a Racial Discrimination Act was passed by the Australian government that no longer determined immigrants by their racial background or

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