The purpose of this Act is to amend the Constitution Act 1889 (WA) so that it recognises that Aboriginal people are the original custodians of Western Australia and that the settlement by European people was done without consultation with those original inhabitants. The amendment also makes explicit that, through this Act, Parliament seeks to effect reconciliation with Western Australia’s Aboriginal people.
For further information, see the Second Reading Speech and Explanatory Memorandum.
Relevant provision:
Preamble
And whereas the Legislature of the Colony, as previously constituted, was replaced through this Act with a Parliament, to consist of the Queen, the Legislative Council and the Legislative Assembly with the members of both Houses chosen by the people, and, as constituted, continued as the Parliament of the Colony until Western Australia’s accession as an Original State of the Commonwealth of Australia in 1901 and thereafter has been the Parliament of the State;
And whereas the Parliament resolves to acknowledge the Aboriginal people as the First People of Western Australia and traditional custodians of the land, the said Parliament seeks to effect a reconciliation with the Aboriginal people of Western Australia: