2min chapter

John Anderson: Conversations cover image

Conversations: with Nicholas Aroney, Professor of Constitutional Law at The University of Queensland

John Anderson: Conversations

CHAPTER

Is the Constitution a Racist Document?

Marcia Langton has said that the Constitution is a racist document. I think on the face of the document, it's not racist because it doesn't on the whole draw distinctions between people on the basis of race. In that sense, as people sometimes say, it's colourblind. There is the racist power. So there's a power to make laws for the people of any particular race. But the high quarters come very close to deciding, hasn't actually finally decided, that that can only be used for the benefit of indigenous people or anyone else. It could be argued that even having that clause in the Constitution is inappropriate because it's not quite consistent with the concept of common citizenship.

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