Editor's note

This Saturday marks the 50th anniversary of the most-decisive referendum victory in Australian history, when the nation voted to recognise Aboriginal people as part of Australia. But the referendum’s failure to give Aboriginal people what they thought they would get – true equality – holds lessons for today’s debates over constitutional recognition, write Gabrielle Appleby and Gemma McKinnon. Keep an eye out for our ongoing coverage as the National Indigenous Constitutional Convention meets at Uluru this week to forge a way forward on the recognition debate.

And amid a flurry of government ‘announceables’ on energy policy, David Blowers and Kate Griffiths from the Grattan Institute urge everyone to please calm down until next month’s Finkel Review gives us a coherent set of recommendations.

Michael Courts

Editor

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Painting the 1967 referendum as a ‘success’ in terms of effective reform for Aboriginal people is problematic. AAP/Marianna Massey

Lessons of 1967 referendum still apply to debates on constitutional recognition

Gabrielle Appleby, UNSW; Gemma McKinnon, UNSW

The 1967 referendum fell far short in giving people what they thought they were voting for, and in giving Aboriginal people what they wanted from it.

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