Aboriginals were not considered citizens of Australia until 1967, and some were regulated under Flora and Fauna Law. The federal www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/Documents/auscurric/sampleunit/1967refer written in 1900, explicitly stated that Aboriginals would not becounted in any state or federal census. Queensland was the last state inAustralia to grant state voting rights to Aboriginals in 1965;Aboriginals in the Northern Territory were considered “wards of thestate” and were not allowed to vote in federal elections unless theywere ex-servicemen up until 1962. Voting and citizenship rights forAboriginals were written into the constitution with a 1967 referendum,which also removed discriminatory references to Aboriginals from theConstitution and gave Parliament the power to make laws pertaining toIndigenous Peoples (previous to that, state governments had totallaw-making power over Aborigines). The referendum set a voting record,with 90.77 percent of the entire population voting in favor of it.Interestingly, the highest percentage of “no” votes were recorded interritories with the highest Aboriginal populations, suggesting thatanti-Indigenous racism was still rampant in many areas of Australia(since the passage of the www.humanrights.gov.au/our-work/aboriginal-and-torres-strait in 1975, 10,5000 complaints have been filed with the government, withmore than 3,500 of those coming from Aboriginals and Torres StraitIslanders). However, though voting is mandatory for all Australiancitizens, voting was not made compulsory for Aborigines until 1983. Queensland has lagged behind in many www.humanrights.gov.au/publications/timeline-bringing-them-h – Queensland Aborigines could be forced to live on reserves until 1971, and could not own their own property until 1975.In 1959, Aboriginals became eligible to receive pensions and maternityleave, but only if they were not “nomadic or primitive,” and often grouppayments were made to reserves or missions rather than individuals orcommunities. Though many of these discriminatory laws were changed inthe 1960s and 1970s, others were being created – www.abc.net.au/news/2012-03-20/calls-for-end-to-discriminati requires that theestate of an Aboriginal who dies without leaving a will should beautomatically put in the hands of a public trustee, rather than grantedto the next of kin as is the case with non-Aboriginals. The LawReform Committee recommended that this law be changed in 2008, and theDepartment of Indigenous Affairs confirmed in 2012 that they are“considering it.” Also contentious is tracker.org.au/2012/11/no-longer-flora-and-fauna-nsw-govt-co the National Parks and Wildlife Act. This law claims that the majority of Aboriginal artifacts are “property of the crown,” andclaims jurisdiction over all Aboriginal heritage and culture.Aboriginals, understandably, object to their culture being regulatedunder an act meant to protect vegetation and wild animals. New SouthWales is the only state in Australia not to have a stand-aloneAboriginal Heritage Act, and activists have been lobbying for one forthe past thirty years.