'The deliberate rape of a splendid people': the one percent campaign in the 1950s

Western Australia was granted self-government in 1890 subject to conditions arising from imperial government concerns over allegations of gross abuse of Indigenous people in Western Australia, and the unsatisfactory treatment of Indigenous people in other selfgoverning colonies. In order to ensure that Western Australian Aboriginal people be afforded some measure of protection from settler self-interest, the imperial government imposed the condition that the new constitution include a provision stipulating that £5,000 or 1 percent of consolidated revenue, whichever was greater, be expended annually on Aboriginal people, to be administered by a Protection Board answerable to the governor rather than the Colonial Parliament. While the Colonial Government agreed to its inclusion as the price of responsible government, it acted quickly to have section 70 cancelled once self-government was granted. After some years of agitation by the colonial government, the necessary Royal Assent for section 70’s repeal was received in 1897, at which time the Aborigines Protection Board was replaced by an Aborigines Department under colonial government control. Following a challenge to the legality of this repeal, a second Act repealing the provisions was passed in 1905