Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander opinion of the franchise, 1961

In 1961, the Australian Parliament’s Hansard service recorded the following interaction between the Select Committee on Voting Rights of Aborigines and some Aboriginal residents of Woodenbong Aboriginal Station (population 174) in northern New South Wales. In that state, Aboriginal people were not prohibited from voting, but few were enrolled to vote. The station manager, LB Cowley, estimated that only five of the fifty people eligible to enrol and to vote had enrolled. Labor’s Kim Beazley asked: ‘Would you say that among those who have some political interest there is any consciousness at all that their vote might be used as an instrument for their people right throughout Australia?’ Cowley replied: ‘I do not think so.’ Several members of the audience immediately interjected ‘I do, I do’. The Committee Chair called them to order.