Liberal Party of Australia Life Member Badge awarded to Neville Bonner

Neville Thomas Bonner AO was an Australian politician, and the first Indigenous Australian to become a member of the Parliament of Australia. Bonner was prompted to join the Liberal Party partly as a result of the 1967 referendum, which amended the Constitution to give the Commonwealth government the power to make laws in relation to Aboriginal people. Bonner was handing out how-to-vote cards for the referendum when he was questioned by local ALP member Bill Hayden, who argued that the ALP did more for aboriginal people than the Liberal Party. Bonner was intensely annoyed that a Labor member would presume the automatic support of aboriginal people for his party, and he joined the Liberal Party instead.