25 May

ABC Classic FM host, Margaret Throsby, replays a 1995 interview with writer and political activist, Faith Bandler, who led and campaigned tirelessly for the 1967 referendum question on recogition of Aboriginal people. Faith Bandler said that she was a republican and that she was putting some energy into it. She thought that the Republic was important, but not the most important thing for Australia: employment, better chances for the poor, better opportunities for women and banning of arms sales were all more important. Faith Bandler had a South Sea Islander father and an Indian-Scottish mother and she married a refugee from Europe, who was Jewish, in the 1950s. Now 89, she has integrity, dignity, wisdom, charm and a most engaging personality. What a great first president of the Australian Republic she would have made! (The one successful question in the 1967 referendum, with 90% of voters saying YES, made constitutional changes to count Aboriginal people in the national population census and give the federal Government power to make laws for the benefit of Aboriginal people. Rights activists like Faith Bandler had campaigned for this change since the 1930s. This is one of only eight successful changes made to the constitution by referendum since Federation in 1901.)