Australians vote 90.77 percent to count Aboriginal people in the census and let Canberra legislate for them, 1967
The highest 'Yes' vote in Australian referendum history
Quick facts
- Date
- 27 May 1967
- National Yes vote
- 90.77 percent
- Became law
- 10 August 1967
- What it did not do
- did not grant voting rights (already extended in 1962)
What happened
On 27 May 1967, Australians voted on a proposed constitutional amendment removing two clauses that had explicitly excluded Aboriginal people: one preventing the Commonwealth Parliament from making laws for them, the other excluding them from official population counts used for electoral and funding purposes. The amendment passed with 90.77 percent of the vote nationwide and a majority in all six states, the largest 'Yes' vote of any referendum in Australian history, and it became law on 10 August 1967. Section 127 of the Constitution, which had excluded Aboriginal people from the census, was not just amended but deleted entirely, leaving that section of the Constitution blank to this day. The referendum did not grant Aboriginal people the right to vote, since that right had already been extended nationally in 1962.
Why it matters
The scale of the 'Yes' vote made the 1967 referendum a powerful symbol of national recognition after generations of formal exclusion, even though its practical legal effect was narrower than popular memory often assumes: it enabled Commonwealth lawmaking and accurate census counts, not citizenship or voting rights, which Aboriginal people already held by that point.
How we know
The referendum result is a matter of official electoral record; the specific constitutional text removed and the sequence of Aboriginal voting rights extended earlier in 1962 are documented by the Museum of Australian Democracy.
Sources
- Museum of Australian Democracy. 1967: Indigenous Affairs - Australian Referendum Recap · Primary source (author-declared)moadoph.gov.au · Cited as a "primary" source (no stronger domain match). · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
- Children's Ground. The 1967 Aboriginal Referendum in Australia · Reputable sourcechildrensground.org.au · The domain "childrensground.org.au" is on our Reputable source registry. · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
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