Since the European invasion in 1788, Aboriginals have been treated poorly by the Australian government and have struggled to retain their rights and freedoms. Conflict emerged as the British colony expanded and Aboriginal land was taken from them. Due to conflict between the Aborigines and the British settlers, they were treated poorly and were refused rights and freedom. They were at risk under unfair industrial relations processes where they were not awarded equal pay, poor access to housing and reasonable living conditions, and on-going discrimination in Australian society. Overtime, aborigines contested leading to the change unequal government policies allowing them to obtain land rights, the reconciliation after issue with the stolen generation and the 1967 referendum which resulted with the inclusion of aborigines in the Australian constitution.
There were many changes in the government policies overtime from initially being paternalistic to reconciliation. “Protection” was the first policy introduced relating to Indigenous people. It started due to the reduction in the Aboriginal population, and a growing consciousness of the general mistreatment of Aboriginal people. While this policy of protection commenced from 1869 to 1937, many civil rights of the aborigines were negated by the government. The Government were in control of the movement of Aboriginal people, leisure and sporting activities, work, earnings and possessions of Aboriginal people and marriages and family life. Continuing difficulties and criticisms of the treatment of Aboriginal people lead to the policy of “Assimilation” being introduced. In 1937 the commonwealth Government held a national conference on Aboriginal affairs. According to this new policy of ‘assimilation’, Aboriginal people would lose their identity but have their ‘status’ raised. The Assimilation Policy meant that the Aboriginal people were forced to stop the practices of