Section 25 of the Constitution talks about the States banning people of any race from voting in State elections. This section says that if a State chooses to ban a racial group from voting, it would have an effect on the Australian Parliament.
The number of seats a State has in the House of Representatives is based on the number of people in that State. Section 25 says that if the State chooses to ban a racial group from voting, the people in that racial group would not be counted when working out the number of seats for that State in the House of Representatives.
The Racial Discrimination Act already stops states from banning a racial group at state elections. This means that section 25 is called a dead letter, because it cannot be used anymore. The problem is that the Constitution still contains a section that talks about states having the power to ban a race from voting at state elections. There is a lot of support for getting rid of section 25 from the Constitution.
Question 1: What would we achieve by getting rid of section 25?
Question 2: Is there any point in keeping it?
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