AusGeoff
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Sage of Gippsland
Posts: 5999
Victoria
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From the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare 2023:
In most data collections, a person is considered to be indigenous if they identified themselves, or were identified by another household member, as being of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander origin. For a few data collections, information on acceptance of a person as being indigenous by an indigenous community may also be required.
At the time of European colonisation, an estimated 320,000 indigenous people lived in Australia; over time, a combination of factors had such an impact that by the 1930s only an estimated 80,000 indigenous people remained in Australia (L. R. Smith, 1980).
In 2016, an estimated 798,400 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people were in Australia, representing 3.0% of the total Australian population.
Among the Indigenous Australian population in 2016:
• 91% identified as being of Aboriginal origin (an estimated 727,500 people), • 4.8% identified as being of Torres Strait Islander origin (an estimated 38,700 people), • 4.0% were of both Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander origin (an estimated 32,200 people).
Based on the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) projections, the number of indigenous Australians in 2021 was estimated to be 881,600.
—Food for thought...
According to the 2021 Australian Census, the combined number of Muslims in Australia, constituted 813,392 people, or 3.1% of the total Australian population.
According to the 2021 Australian Census, the combined number of Chinese in Australia, constituted 595.63 people, or 2.3% of the total Australian population.
Which raises the question: should a relatively small Aboriginal population be given any Constitutional legislative power specific to that group alone?
My response would be no. And I'll be voting NO in any referendum. Why should I as a fourth generation Australian have—in effect—less say Constitutionally than a self-identified Aboriginal? Is that not divisive, or even the thin end of a racial wedge?
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