by John Pyke, Queensland candidate for the Constitutional Convention
3.(3) The people of Australia recognise that the lands once occupied by the
aboriginal peoples of Australia, under a system of occupation now recognised as
"native title", were claimed by the Crown of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain in a process which was in accordance with the practice of other
European powers at the time, but which would now be regarded as an unlawful
invasion. In consequence of this, it is declared that:-
(i) all titles to land derived from a grant in the name of the Crown, of
what was then considered Crown land, or from a sale by the Commonwealth
government or a State or Territory government, where the grant or sale
were valid according to the law at the relevant time, are valid titles;
(ii) all land with which a group of native people has maintained a continuous
connection since the British Crown claimed possession of the land is
held by that group under native title to the extent that the native
title has not been extinguished by a valid Crown grant or government
sale; and
(iii)all land not subject to any valid title or claim of ownership is vested,
subject to this Constitution, in the relevant States or Territories or
the government of the Commonwealth, as trustees for the people of the
respective States or Territories or the people of the Commonwealth, to
be managed or disposed of in the public interest and subject to the
relevant law.
3AA. Citizenship
Any person born in Australia, one of whose parents was legally resident in
Australia, and any person one of whose parents was an Australian citizen at the
time of the person's birth, is automatically an Australian citizen if his or
her normal place of residence has been in Australia for at least ten of the
first fourteen years of life, and is entitled to claim Australian citizenship
as of right in other cases. The Parliament may make laws extending, but not
restricting, the right to claim Australian citizenship.
[Compare the Australian Citizenship Act 1948, s.10.]
Back to: Constitutional Alterations for
a Real Republic
Written by John Pyke, 5
November 1997