tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-68693501501470842632024-03-05T21:15:49.689+11:00Marcia LangtonDiscussing constitutional recognition of indigenous Australians and news and views on the things that matter.Marcia Langtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00502178137076460574noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6869350150147084263.post-45592819906670318152010-12-27T17:30:00.000+11:002012-05-25T15:29:16.452+10:00Galarrwuy Yunupingu, Serious Business<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span class="MsoCommentReference"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Latha; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">SERIOUS BUSINESS</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span class="MsoCommentReference"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Latha; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">Galarrwuy Yunupingu</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span class="MsoCommentReference"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Latha; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">Speech at the University of Melbourne Law School</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span class="MsoCommentReference"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Latha; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">26 October 2007</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoDocumentMap" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<b><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Latha; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">Opening Remarks</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6869350150147084263" name="OLE_LINK1"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Latha; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for having me here tonight. I would like to pay my respects to the traditional owners of this land, the Wurundjeri people and the Kulin nations who, like me, inherited their homeland from their ancestors in the sacred past and who are bound to it by a sacred duty. I thank you for allowing me to speak on your land.</span></a><br />
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Latha; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"></span><br />
<a name='more'></a><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Latha; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Latha; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">I would also like to thank Vice Chancellor Professor Glyn Davis for his kind introduction.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoDocumentMap" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<b><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Latha; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">A new settlement?</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Latha; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">Ladies and gentlemen, recently the Prime Minister of Australia announced that if re-elected he will call a referendum to amend the Constitution to recognise the Indigenous people of Australia in the preamble.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Latha; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">He said that he wanted to see a new settlement of the relationship between Indigenous Australia and the Australian nation.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Latha; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">I was particularly pleased when the Leader of the Opposition, Mr Kevin Rudd, announced that he and his party would support the referendum. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Latha; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">In fact I waited anxiously to hear this news. I was delighted when I was told that Mr Rudd was with Mr Howard on this issue and that both leaders would support the idea of a new settlement.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Latha; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">I was delighted because for the first time in Australian political history we have agreement between both parties that there must be a resolution of the place and rights of the Indigenous people of Australia.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Latha; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">This is why I have named this speech <b>Serious Business</b>.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Latha; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">This business is the most serious business that we face as a people and as a nation.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Latha; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">After many long years we are now facing the moment when we must decide how this country will recognise the First Australians.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<b><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Latha; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">Captain Cook </span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Latha; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">When Captain Cook landed on the Australian continent he had with him an order from King George the Third.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Latha; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">That Order was that he obtain the CONSENT of the local people to his arrival and any settlement.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Latha; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">The Order said:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<i><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Latha; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">You are also with the Consent of the Natives to take <span class="goohl2"><span style="font-family: Latha;">Possession</span></span> of Convenient Situations in the Country in the Name of the King of Great Britain:</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Latha; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">Captain Cook and Captain Phillip after him ignored that order.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Latha; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">And of course it was not too long before he was in open conflict with the local Aboriginal people.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Latha; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">The Eora people who owned Port Jackson and Sydney did not recognise the Crown’s claims to ownership just as so many Aboriginal people today still do not recognise those claims. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Latha; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">Cook’s actions were on behalf of the King and he left a legacy that the nation is still trying to tackle today.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Latha; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">Indigenous people have our own law and society. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Latha; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">For my people it is ROM WA<u>T</u>ANGU. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Latha; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">Rom Wa<u>t</u>angu is the law of the land and the seas, and of life itself. My people are and will always be the owner and the maker of the land and sea. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Latha; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">Rom Wa<u>t</u>angu is the most powerful and real thing in Yolngu life. We do not pledge allegiance to the Crown.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Latha; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">Captain Phillip and those that followed him failed to understand this. They failed to establish a proper order or balance and this has been tearing away at the heart of the nation ever since.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<b><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Latha; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">Howard </span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Latha; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">Ladies and gentlemen, 220 years later we return to where we started.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Latha; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">A Prime Minister has said that he will now do what was not done before. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Latha; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">He will recognise the special place of Aboriginal people in the Australian nation.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Latha; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">He will sit down and talk with us, consult with us, listen to us, and learn from us in the process of formulating questions for the whole of Australia to vote on.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Latha; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">As I said earlier, doing this properly and honestly is the most serious business that we have faced as a nation.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Latha; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">And it is not just a matter of a Preamble. Mr Howard has talked about a New Settlement and the Commonwealth government’s actions in the Northern Territory show that it’s search for this new settlement is more than just symbolic.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Latha; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">Mr Howard is trying, on behalf of the nation, and on behalf of the Queen, to get it right.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Latha; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">On behalf of the Gumatj people I must thank the Australian people for this. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Latha; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">As Mr Howard acknowledged, it is the Australian people that have maintained a sense of injustice about the place of Indigenous people in Australia, and the Australian people have finally got through to Mr Howard.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Latha; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">The hundreds of thousands who walked across the Sydney Harbour Bridge and who signed the Sorry Books, and the good people who have worked away in Aboriginal communities doing good things and volunteering their time, their money and their voice to our cause.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Latha; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">The efforts of these people will find a special place in the history of this nation.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Latha; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">So, I am very grateful as a Gumatj person to everyone who has made their voice heard in the struggle for Indigenous rights.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Latha; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">Because it is a struggle. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Latha; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">Let me just pause and talk a little bit about my people and our struggle.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 6pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Latha; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">My people had a good relationship with foreigners for more than two hundred years before the British came to Australia. The Macassans came to the Yolngu coastline each year with the trade winds, or monsoon winds. In my own land, the land of the Gumatj, they came to Gunyangara and camped. They caught and cooked trepang, which they then traded with the Chinese. They negotiated agreements with the Yolngu about their visits and we had very close friendships, and some Yolngu people married Macassans. Some Yolngu went to Macassar and back, and some Yolngu people are buried in Macassar. Some Macassans stayed and lived with us for a time. Children from both cultures were born during that very long history. The Macassans joined with us in our ceremonial life and we shared food, songs, and technology. Macassan words, songs and cultural traditions are still part of the Yolngu culture. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 6pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 6pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Latha; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">But when the whites came in the nineteenth century, our world changed. By 1885 Arnhem Land had been divided into two pastoral leases. From 1885 to 1893, whites terrorists employed by the pastoral lease companies shot Yolngu and killed them with poisoned horsemeat. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 6pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 6pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Latha; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">In about 1910, at Gän gan, inland from Blue Mud Bay and the homeland of the famous Yolngu artist Gawarrin Gurmana, white men killed almost an entire clan. Then they rode on horseback to Biranybirany, where they nearly wiped out the Yarrwidi clan, the saltwater people of my Gumatj people. Then they rode to Caledon Bay and Trial Bay. At Gurkawuy, they nearly wiped out the Marrakulu clan, which included the family of the famous artist Old Man Wanambi. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 6pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 6pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Latha; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">One of the men killed during the expedition of 1910 was an old man of the Djapu clan from the area of Caledon Bay. It was that man’s son, Wonggu, who later became a leading figure in Yolngu resistance to European invasion. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 6pt 0cm; text-align: justify; text-indent: 8.5pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 6pt 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Latha; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">My father told me many stories about these massacres. My father was there when my people left the mainland for the islands off the coast so that they too would not be killed.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Latha; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">These stories are very real to every person in Arnhem Land. They are living memories. My father very courageously brought our families back to the mainland and reasserted our ownership of our land and continued in the practice of our culture.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Latha; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">Then in the 1960’s a mining company came to the Gove Peninsula. Representatives from the government came and simply told us that we were to move out of the way because a mine was to start on our sacred lands. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Latha; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">That moment was the start of land rights because it brought together the senior people of the area and they started to fight for recognition. They painted their position on bark in a statement that is now known as the Bark Petition. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Latha; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">That was in 1963. I was involved in the following years as this struggle continued.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Latha; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">But today, although we have land rights, the mine remains on my land without an agreement with my people. It is a daily reminder that I am not in full control of my land.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Latha; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">So my whole adult life has been a struggle for my rights. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Latha; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">In 1988, with the late Arrernte leader Wenten Rubuntja, I led the Aboriginal people of the Northern Territory to make another bark petition, which is called the Barunga Statement. I presented it to the then Prime Minister Bob Hawke who understood our reasoning. He wanted a treaty with us, but he was opposed in Canberra by both sides of politics. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Latha; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">At one point a few years ago I was so frustrated that I wanted to go and bring home the Barunga Statement from where it hung in Parliament.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Latha; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">It was prepared after great consultation with the traditional owners of the Northern Territory. It calls for Aboriginal self-management, a national system of land rights, compensation for loss of lands, respect for Aboriginal identity, an end to discrimination, and the granting of full civil, economic, social and cultural rights.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Latha; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">The Barunga Statement is a foundational document and starting point for this current debate. I am pleased that it still hangs in Parliament.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Latha; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">But I had come to feel that its words had been so ignored that the best thing to do would be to get it out of the Parliament and take it home and bury it in a bark coffin.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Latha; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">My cousin, Wali Wunungmurra, who is the last living signatory to the original Bark Petition told me recently that he wished to go and get that Petition and take it home also. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Latha; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">These are the frustrations that men like Wali and I live with.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Latha; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">But without doubt we now have a new opportunity. We now face the start of a process that has the potential to set this generation apart as a generation of unifiers and peacemakers.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Latha; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">Ladies and gentlemen, it will not be easy.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Latha; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">It will be a great challenge. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Latha; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">Let me say again that this is <b>serious business.</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Latha; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">And allow me to make the following 3 points to illustrate how serious this business really is.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<u><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Latha; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">Number One</span></u><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Latha; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"> - The referendum must be about more than just the Preamble. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Latha; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">We must make changes to the Constitution to make sure that our place in the Preamble is not undermined. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Latha; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">Mr Howard has said that the Constitution must be amended to recognise the special place of Indigenous people in Australia and that means we must deal with the section known as the “race power”. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Latha; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">This is Section 51(26) and it currently allows the government to make laws based on race that can <u>disadvantage </u>Indigenous people. This clause needs to be removed and replaced with a clause that protects and strengthens Indigenous rights. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Latha; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">This includes most importantly our property rights, both to land and sea. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Latha; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">These rights must be recognised and protected.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Latha; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">To date Indigenous people fight a continuous battle to hang on to what rights we have to our land. A line must be drawn that prevents any further taking of our land or sea country without our consent and agreement.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Latha; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">Indigenous people owned the land and the sea before anyone else. This must be recognised once and for all.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Latha; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">Ladies and gentlemen, I want to emphasise this point. If there is to be a settlement at all, the Constitution must not just recognise us – it must recognise what is ours and what has been taken from us.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Latha; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">We seek this recognition within the nation, not outside it. This is a discussion we must have as Australians.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<u><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Latha; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">Point Number Two - </span></u><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Latha; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">We must ensure that we bring all of Australia along with this process. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Latha; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">These changes - this Settlement - affects every Australian. Every Australian must have a chance to have their voice heard. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Latha; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><br />
We need balance in this Settlement.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Latha; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">To obtain balance we must ensure that every Australian has an opportunity to involve himself or herself in this discussion.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Latha; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">When we are done, every citizen can proudly stand and acknowledge what they have achieved in their country.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Latha; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">They can say: “This is our country. It is a country that we are all proud of. We now rejoice and celebrate with our Indigenous brothers and sisters together as one.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Latha; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><br />
We live in a multicultural nation that is made up of many different cultures and languages. This needs to be recognised so that we can deeply and honestly express who we are as a nation.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Latha; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">There will be opposition from Aboriginal people who are so distressed by their personal circumstances that they are incapable of agreeing about anything that involves government. These people too must be heard. Let us put our agreed position, achieved in good faith with all Australians, to a referendum of Aboriginal voters. This will require them to think about their future: yes or no? Do they want dignity or do they want conflict for all our future generations?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<u><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Latha; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">Point Number Three - </span></u><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Latha; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">This point concerns the practical aspects of this Settlement. There can be no settlement if Indigenous people remain the most disadvantaged citizens in the nation.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Latha; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">Words can set the scene but real commitments are required to tackle poverty and disadvantage. Fixing these problems will take time, energy and money. The immediate problems of the Indigenous world cannot be put to one side as we start to talk about symbols and words. This is why I have supported the Emergency Intervention in the Northern Territory. There are problems with its implementation that must be fixed, and I am personally committed to putting my shoulder to the wheel and getting the intervention working. And so must we all, for the sake of the children.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Latha; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">And these children must have a future, which means economic development.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Latha; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">Significant investment and effort is required in order to build economies that can provide jobs and income for future generations.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Latha; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">These are matters I have discussed at length with Noel Pearson.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Latha; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">Our words must inspire us to greater efforts on behalf of the children and the old people and the everyday people who struggle out there in our communities.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Latha; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">Ladies and gentlemen, I ask that you come with me in this great challenge.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Latha; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">In this most <b>serious business.</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Latha; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">It will not be an easy task and I know from experience that many times we will want to stand up and walk away from the table. But we must persist. We must never give up on this task as it is the most important task.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Latha; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">We must find the balance between all the people of this nation.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Latha; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">We need to go into this Hand in Hand and Heart to Heart with our fellow Australians.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Latha; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">And because our loss is great we will need face to face dealings and eye to eye talk.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Latha; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">Reconciliation does not come about because we agree to sit down and talk. Reconciliation only comes about when we have talked and reached an understanding. It is at the end of that process, when we shake hands and go off into our day-to-day lives, that is when we are reconciled; reconciliation does not come just from turning up to a meeting place. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Latha; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">Reconciliation comes about because of honesty, truth and making good what wrong has been done.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Latha; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">There has been much wrong done to my people, including to the Stolen Generations. These wrongs must be made right. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Latha; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">We have the opportunity now so I encourage you all to work towards this great prize that is reconciliation.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Latha; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">Lets get it right once and for all.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-family: Latha; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">THANK YOU.</span></div>Marcia Langtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00502178137076460574noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6869350150147084263.post-22201081890431534592010-12-27T12:07:00.002+11:002010-12-27T12:07:55.937+11:00Generation OneI am following Generation One.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://generationone.org.au/">See the Generation One website here</a>Marcia Langtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00502178137076460574noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6869350150147084263.post-11384594055166347042010-12-27T11:51:00.000+11:002010-12-27T11:51:09.610+11:00WHO has made the list of the Territory's Most Powerful in 2010?THE CROC IS AT NUMBER 8. BUT WHICH CROC? <a href="http://www.ntnews.com.au/article/2010/12/24/199831_ntnews.html">THE OTHER CROCS ON THE LIST</a>Marcia Langtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00502178137076460574noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6869350150147084263.post-30321549890804801192010-12-27T11:48:00.000+11:002010-12-27T11:48:15.742+11:00THE Territory's reputation as the nation's drinking capital has been confirmed in a new survey.<a href="http://www.ntnews.com.au/article/2010/12/27/203461_ntnews.html">NT News report on survey of NT alcohol consumption - extraordinary! </a>Marcia Langtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00502178137076460574noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6869350150147084263.post-46582370110250633452010-12-26T21:09:00.001+11:002010-12-27T11:30:12.575+11:00OTHER NEWS<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8WKkXERhZO0wsPAKBJ9b7y0oiFzgN51IxmP5kGiEWINkUAuwlFgVmqDrqEyP-Jlqe4NYGJwUhU-F2QsquzsQ3Z2tQS0tQHPIJJD0mFJ6uhyphenhyphen1_K7cnUM7oaIq9UxDqbLAi2ONkaGYcEDw/s1600/gal_rioli2-600x400+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8WKkXERhZO0wsPAKBJ9b7y0oiFzgN51IxmP5kGiEWINkUAuwlFgVmqDrqEyP-Jlqe4NYGJwUhU-F2QsquzsQ3Z2tQS0tQHPIJJD0mFJ6uhyphenhyphen1_K7cnUM7oaIq9UxDqbLAi2ONkaGYcEDw/s200/gal_rioli2-600x400+2.jpg" width="158" /></a></div><div style="color: black;"><b>Vale Maurice Rioli. </b></div><div style="color: black;"><br />
</div><div style="color: black;"><br />
</div><div style="color: black;"><b>One of the greats and sadly missed. My condolences to his family and friends.</b></div><div style="color: black;"><b><br />
</b></div><div style="color: black;"><b>So young, a terrible loss. </b><br />
<br />
<b>Nicolas Perpith, The Trailblazer:</b><br />
<b><a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/trailblazer-and-champion-mr-magic-dead-at-53/story-e6frg6nf-1225976468625">http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/trailblazer-and-champion-mr-magic-dead-at-53/story-e6frg6nf-1225976468625</a> </b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: black; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEil6yXA2vWK-jzNSO1BjHTTmfGFjjK_ypk15-IxWC9re6OEax3NbNhZ-o6s_RVs_9HNA1lEHq2rWhlO-hb45IzPauE3HxxJsCbY5hLIaygEsbBqm5nvmB7ig-fhmfNYFwhi_zpihnj8_Yw/s1600/gal_rioli3-82-600x400+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEil6yXA2vWK-jzNSO1BjHTTmfGFjjK_ypk15-IxWC9re6OEax3NbNhZ-o6s_RVs_9HNA1lEHq2rWhlO-hb45IzPauE3HxxJsCbY5hLIaygEsbBqm5nvmB7ig-fhmfNYFwhi_zpihnj8_Yw/s200/gal_rioli3-82-600x400+3.jpg" width="141" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>Marcia Langtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00502178137076460574noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6869350150147084263.post-27168060139780130332010-12-26T14:53:00.001+11:002010-12-26T14:55:07.383+11:00The Law Council of Australia, Draft position paper on constitutional recognition of Indigenous Australians<div id="header" style="color: black;"><div class="clear-block" id="header-inner"></div></div><div id="content-header" style="color: black; text-align: center;"><h1 class="title">Constitutional recognition of Indigenous Australians</h1></div><div style="color: black;"></div><div class="meta" style="color: black; text-align: center;"><div class="meta-inner"><div class="submitted">Law Council of Australia Limited<br />
ABN 85 005 260 622</div><div class="submitted"><br />
www.lawcouncil.asn.au<a href="http://www.lawcouncil.asn.au/">www.lawcouncil.asn.au</a></div><div class="submitted"> </div></div></div><div style="color: black; text-align: center;"></div><div class="content has-terms" style="color: black;"><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;">GPO Box 1989, Canberra<br />
ACT 2601, DX 5719 Canberra<br />
19 Torrens St Braddon ACT 2612<br />
Telephone +61 2 6246 3788<br />
Facsimile +61 2 6248 0639</div><br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><b>CONSTITUTIONAL RECOGNITION OF INDIGENOUS AUSTRALIANS<br />
Draft Position Paper<br />
22 October 2010<br />
Draft Position Paper – Constitutional Recognition of Indigenous Australians Page 2<br />
INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><br />
</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">1. On the eve of the 2010 Federal election, all major political parties committed to holding a referendum in the present term of Federal Parliament, to recognise the First Australians in the Constitution. The Law Council of Australia welcomes this bipartisan political commitment to Constitutional reform and presents the following Position Paper, identifying proposals for amending the Constitution, to give practical and substantive effect to that commitment.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> 2. In particular, the Law Council welcomes the opportunity presented by recent political developments to renew relations between Australia’s Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples, and to create a basis for future relationships founded upon principles of equality and consent.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> 3. In many countries, Indigenous peoples have (re)established new Constitutional relationships within the limits of existing nation-States. These developments suggest that there are many ways to recognise distinct Indigenous identities in Constitutional documents, and to renew relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples on a basis of equality and consent.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> 4. In 1988, the Constitutional Commission recommended substantive Constitutional reform to the race power in section 51(xxvi) of the Constitution to retain the spirit, and make explicit the meaning, of the alteration made by the 1967 referendum which Justice Brennan has described as “an affirmation of the will of the Australian people that the odious policies of oppression and neglect of Aboriginal citizens were to be at an end, and that the primary object of the power is beneficial”. The proposal to replace section 51(xxvi) with a provision empowering the Commonwealth Parliament to make laws with respect to Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders has been supported by the Hon Robert French who, writing extracurially, has commented that: “Such laws are based not on race but on the special place of those peoples in the history of the nation”.1</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> 5. In March 1995, following the 1992 decision of the High Court in Mabo v The Commonwealth (No 2),2 comprehensive “social justice package” reports were provided to the Prime Minister by, amongst others, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC), the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner. Each of these reports raised the need for substantive Constitutional reform.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> 6. In an address to a conference on The Position of Indigenous Peoples in National Constitutions in Canberra on 4 June 1993, Professor Erica-Irene Daes, Chairperson of the UN Working Group on Indigenous Populations, noted that with few exceptions Indigenous peoples were never a part of State-building. With reference to Australia, Professor Daes suggested that the best way to mark the 100th anniversary of the Australian Constitution might be “to build a new modern Constitution, in which the original people of this land can play a distinct, creative role.” The opportunity for Constitutional renewal on the occasion of the Centenary of Federation was not realised.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> 7. The adoption by the United Nations General Assembly in December 2007 of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous peoples, and Australia’s expression of formal support for the Declaration on 3 April 2009, represented further important steps</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> 1 The Hon Justice Robert French, “The Race Power: A Constitutional Chimera”, chapter 8 in HP Lee and George Winterton (eds), Australian Constitutional Landmarks (2003, Cambridge University Press) 180 at 208.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> 2 (1992) 175 CLR 1.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> Draft Position Paper – Constitutional Recognition of Indigenous Australians Page 3</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> forward for the recognition, promotion and protection of the rights and freedoms of Indigenous peoples.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> 8. The Law Council considers that the Australian Constitution should formally recognise the distinct identities of Australia’s Indigenous peoples, and secure to them equality before the law. In particular, the Law Council considers that a logical corollary of recognition of Indigenous Australians is conferral of substantive equality and removal of discrimination, otherwise the preamble is meaningless. It is considered that a referendum confined to preambular recognition without appropriate amendments to the body of the Constitution to give effect to the preamble would serve to delay real action to provide proper Constitutional recognition of the rights of Indigenous Australians. The Law Council supports an approach to Constitutional recognition which gives practical effect to preambular reform.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> 9. Further, the Law Council considers that debate in Australia leading to a referendum on recognition of Indigenous Australians in the Constitution must be based on a recognition of the distinct rights of Australia’s Indigenous peoples, and proceed on a basis of consultation with Australia’s Indigenous peoples through their own representative institutions in order to obtain their free, prior and informed consent to any proposal for Constitutional reform.3</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> RECENT POLITICAL DEVELOPMENTS</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> 10. The Australian Labor Party’s 2010 Election Policy, Closing the Gap, provides as follows in relation to Constitutional recognition of Indigenous Australians:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> “Indigenous constitutional recognition</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> We will pursue bipartisan support for taking the steps needed to progress the recognition of Indigenous Australians in the Constitution.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> Indigenous people generously share their culture and traditions with those who have come here after them.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> Constitutional recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples would be an important step in strengthening the relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians, and building trust.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> A Gillard Labor Government will establish an Expert Panel on Indigenous Constitutional Recognition comprising Indigenous leaders, representatives from across the Federal Parliament, constitutional law experts and members of the broader Australian community.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> The expert panel would be charged with broad consultation on recognition of Indigenous people in the constitution, providing options on the form of the amendment and guidance on the information needed for public discussion.”</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> 3 In this regard, articles 18 and 19 of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples provide that:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> “18. Indigenous peoples have the right to participate in decision-making in matters which would affect their rights, through representatives chosen by themselves in accordance with their own procedures, as well as to maintain and develop their own indigenous decisionmaking institutions.”</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> “19. States shall consult and cooperate in good faith with the indigenous peoples concerned through their own representative institutions in order to obtain their free, prior and informed consent before adopting and implementing legislative or administrative measures that may affect them.”</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> Draft Position Paper – Constitutional Recognition of Indigenous Australians Page 4</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> 11. Launched as part of the Coalition’s 2010 Election Policy, The Coalition’s Plan for Real Action for Indigenous Australians provides as follows in relation to Constitutional recognition of Indigenous Australians:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> “3. Support a referendum to recognise Indigenous Australians in the Constitution</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> Before the last election, the Coalition made a commitment to hold a referendum to recognise Indigenous Australians in the preamble of the Constitution. Labor refused to match this commitment until recently.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> The recognition of Indigenous Australians in the Constitution makes sense, and is overdue. The Coalition will encourage public discussion and debate about the proposed change and seek bipartisan support for a referendum to be put to the Australian people at the 2013 election.”</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> 12. The agreement between the Australian Greens and the Australian Labor Party, signed 1 September 2010, provides as follows in relation to Constitutional recognition of Indigenous Australians (at paragraph 3(f)):</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> “Hold referenda during the 43rd Parliament or at the next election on Indigenous constitutional recognition and recognition of local government in the Constitution.”</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> 13. In her letter of 7 September 2010 to the Hon Rob Oakeshott, Member for Lyne, Prime Minister Julia Gillard confirmed that in addition to the Australian Labor Party’s 2010 election commitments and the matters outlined in agreements with the Australian Greens and other independent MPs, a new Government would pursue inter alia the following policy programs during the term of the 43rd Parliament:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> “A referendum during the 43rd Parliament or at the next election on recognition of Indigenous Australians in the Constitution.”</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> 14. As reported in The Australian on 24 September 2010, the Minister for Indigenous Affairs, the Hon Jenny Macklin MP, has called for those from "across the political divide" to unite and form a consensus position on constitutional recognition for Indigenous people as Labor works towards a referendum on the issue.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> PROCESSES</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> 15. How given the Federal Government’s apparent commitment to hold a referendum during the 43rd Parliament or at the next election on Indigenous constitutional recognition should the process of consultation with Indigenous peoples and the broader Australian community be approached?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> 16. The March 1995 “social justice package” reports of ATSIC and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner emphasise the critical importance of adequately resourced processes of consultation with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and organisations in relation to options for Constitutional reform, the preparation of appropriate information and consultation materials, and a major public awareness program to create an environment for change and understanding of Indigenous Constitutional perspectives.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> 17. The Law Council considers that in the endeavour of forging new relationships, and consistent with international standards, processes in Australia leading to a referendum on recognition of Indigenous Australians in the Constitution must proceed on a basis of consultation with Australia’s Indigenous peoples through their own representative</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> Draft Position Paper – Constitutional Recognition of Indigenous Australians Page 5</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> institutions in order to obtain their free, prior and informed consent to any proposal for Constitutional reform.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> 4</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> 18. In light of the timeframe, it will be necessary to be realistic about the feasibility of preparing for and having passed at referendum a complex series of amendments to the Constitution. Accordingly, it will be important to work to keep processes for the renewal of relations between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians and of Constitutional reform alive beyond the life of the 43rd Parliament.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> 19. In Canada, mechanisms were adopted to ensure that processes of discussion and settlement were ongoing. In section 37, the Canadian Constitution Act 1982 contained a commitment to constitutional processes with indigenous processes.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> 20. The Kalkaringi Statement, adopted on 20 August 1998 by the Combined Aboriginal Nations of Central Australia, provided: “I9b) That a Northern Territory Constitution must contain a commitment to negotiate with Aboriginal peoples a framework agreement, setting out processes for the mutual recognition of our governance structures, the sharing of power and the development of fiscal autonomies.”5</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> 21. Having regard to the time-frame proposed by the Government, and experience elsewhere, the Law Council supports a process of Constitutional reform which:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> (a) seeks immediate Constitutional recognition of the distinct identities of Indigenous Australians, and provides some protection of the rights of Indigenous Australians by inserting a general guarantee of racial equality; and</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> (b) ensures that there is ongoing discussion of the rights of Indigenous Australians, provision for the negotiation of agreements, and a mechanism to confer Constitutional protection on such agreements.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> SUBSTANCE OF CONSTITUTIONAL REFORM</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> 22. In terms of the substance of Constitutional reform, the Law Council notes that much of the political discussion to date has focussed on recognition of Indigenous Australians in the Preamble to the Constitution. However, the Law Council is encouraged that none of the Australian Labor Party’s 2010 election commitments, the agreements with the Australian Greens and other independent MPs, or the Prime Minister’s letter of 7 September 2010 to the Member for Lyne, the Hon Rob Oakeshott, suggests that the agenda for Constitutional reform is confined to the Preamble.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> 23. As stated at the outset, the Law Council supports an approach to Constitutional recognition which gives effect to preambular reform, securing enforceable rights for Indigenous Australians. The Law Council considers a referendum confined to preambular recognition only would be of little practicle effect. The recommended enabling provisions would also provide an opportunity to remove archaic provisions, based on discriminatory policies of the past century, and to secure a guarantee of substantial racial equality.6</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> 4 Consistent with articles 18 and 19 of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> 5 S Pritchard, “Recent Constitutional Developments in the Northern Territory: The Kalkaringi Convention” 4 (15) Indigenous Law Bulletin 12.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> 6 It is in any event questionable whether section 128 of the Constitution applies to the Preamble as opposed to the Constitution itself, such as to render altogether uncertain whether a referendum is required at all to amend the Preamble.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> Draft Position Paper – Constitutional Recognition of Indigenous Australians Page 6</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> 24. Whilst the Law Council does not support, at this stage, the development of an extensive catalogue of Indigenous rights for inclusion in the Constitution, it considers it imperative that the agenda for reform must:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> (a) extend beyond the confines of the Preamble; and</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> (b) be informed by a substantive concept of equality.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> 25. In particular, the Law Council considers that the following options for Constitutional reform merit serious consideration7</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> Section 25 :</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> (a) the removal of those remaining sections of the Constitution which discriminate on the ground of race; relevantly, section 25 which anticipates the disqualification of persons of a particular race from voting;8</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> Section 51(xxvi)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> (b) the removal of section 51(xxvi), and its replacement with a power on the Federal Parliament to make laws “with respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples”, (such laws not being based on race rather, as the Chief Justice, the Hon Robert French, has commented, “on the special place of those peoples in the history of the nation” 9</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> Preamble );</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> (c) the insertion in the Preamble of new paragraphs recognising Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the first peoples of Australia with distinct identities and histories, as well as their prior occupation and ownership, continuing dispossession, and particular status in contemporary Australia;10</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> Equality and</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> (d) the insertion of a general guarantee of racial equality and prohibition of racial discrimination. Such a guarantee would have the effect of securing the protection of those Indigenous rights which have been recognised (such as native title rights), as well as rights which might be negotiated and recognised in the future (through agreements, decisions of the High Court amplifying Mabo No 2, etc).11</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> Constitutional Conferences</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> 7 Professor Jeremy Webber has proposed as options for Constitutional reform the removal of provisions which bear traces of discriminatory policies, including s 25 and perhaps even s 51(xxvi), a Bill of Rights, constitutional measures designed to promote autonomy for Indigenous peoples, and a preamble or some other some symbolic constitutional declaration: Jeremy Webber, “Multiculturalism and the Australian Constitution” (2001) 24 University of New South Wales Law Journal 882, 889-890.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> 8 See, for example, 1988 Report of the Constitutional Commission; Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation, Going Forward: Social Justice for the First Australians A Submission to the Commonwealth Government 1995; November 1996 Bathurst People’s Convention; the December 2000 Final Report of the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> 9 See, for example, 1988 Report of the Constitutional Commission; and the The Hon Justice Robert French, “The Race Power: A Constitutional Chimera”, chapter 8 in HP Lee and George Winterton (eds), Australian Constitutional Landmarks (2003, Cambridge University Press) 180, 208.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> 10 See, for example, Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation, Going Forward: Social Justice for the First Australians A Submission to the Commonwealth Government 1995; November 1996 Bathurst People’s Convention; the December 2000 Final Report of the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> 11 For example, the December 2000 Final Report of the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> Draft Position Paper – Constitutional Recognition of Indigenous Australians Page 7</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> 26. In addition, the Law Council raises for consideration (and supports) the insertion of a new provision, similar to section 105A of the Constitution, providing a commitment to Constitutional conferences or other processes to discuss Indigenous rights.12 A provision similar to section 105A might vest in the Commonwealth power to make agreements with the Indigenous peoples of Australia on a range of subjects. Such provision might provide, like section 105(A), for the agreement/agreements to override other laws. This approach would obviate the need to put to referendum an extensive catalogue of rights or detailed arrangements and provide, at the same time, a source of Constitutional authority for such agreement/agreements.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> 12 In its 1988 Final Report, the Constitutional Commission noted that during the period in which it had been conducting its review of the Constitution, there has been a revival of interest in the possibility of some sort of formal agreement being entered into between the Commonwealth of Australia and representatives of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders. The Constitutional Commission commented:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> “There is no doubt that the Commonwealth has sufficient constitutional powers to take appropriate action to assist in the promotion of reconciliation with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander citizens and to recognise their special place in the Commonwealth of Australia. Whether an agreement, or a number of agreements, is an appropriate way of working to that objective has yet to be determined.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> A constitutional alteration to provide the framework for an agreement provides an imaginative and attractive approach to the immensely difficult situation which exists. But any alteration should not be made until an agreement has been negotiated and constitutional alteration is thought necessary or desirable. Section 105A, on which a possible alteration may be modelled, was approved at a referendum in 1928 after the Financial Agreement had been entered into between the Commonwealth and the States in 1927. The electors, therefore, were in a position to know precisely what was being approved.”</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> Draft Position Paper – Constitutional Recognition of Indigenous Australians Page 8</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> BACKGROUND</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> THE AUSTRALIAN CONSTITUTIONAL BACKGROUND AND THE 1967 REFERENDUM</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> 1. The preamble to the Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act 1901, an Act of the Parliament to the United Kingdom at Westminster, provides:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> “Whereas the people of New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Queensland, and Tasmania, humbly relying on the blessing of Almighty God, have agreed to unite in one indissoluble Federal Commonwealth under the Crown of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and under the Constitution hereby established”.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> 2. It is well-known that the “people” referred to in the Preamble to the Constitution did not include Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders. In 1901, the only two references to Indigenous people in the Constitution were couched in language of exclusion:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> (a) Federal Parliament was denied power to make laws with respect to people of “the aboriginal race in any State”: section 51(xxvi))13; and</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> (b) section 127 provided: “In reckoning the numbers of the people of the Commonwealth, or of a State or other part of the Commonwealth, aboriginal natives shall not be counted.”14</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> 3. Both the Convention debates and Quick and Garran in their 1901 Commentaries on the Constitution make clear that the so-called race power in s 51(xxvi), in its original form, was a racist and discriminatory provision.15</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> 4. Section 25 of the Constitution provided (and continues to provide):</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> “[I]f by the law of any State all persons of any race are disqualified from voting at elections for the more numerous House of the Parliament of the State, then, in reckoning the number of the people of the State or of the Commonwealth, persons of that race resident in that State shall not be counted.”</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> 5. At the time of Federation, legislation in Western Australia and Queensland precluded Aboriginal men from voting. During the decade of the Constitutional Conventions, only in South Australia were Aborigines placed on electoral rolls and able to vote for delegates to the Conventions.16 It was not until 1965 that Queensland allowed voting rights for adult Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> 6. Nor, in drawing up the Constitution, did the Founding Fathers see any reason to include women in their deliberations. Section 41 of the Constitution provided (and continues to provide) that no adult with the right to vote at State elections shall be prevented from voting at Commonwealth elections. Section 41 was adopted to ensure that women who had gained the vote in South Australia in 1897 could also vote in Commonwealth elections. As at Federation, only women in South Australia and</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> 13 Section 51(xxvi) provided Federal Parliament with power to make laws with respect to “The people of any race, other than the aboriginal race in any State, for whom it is deemed necessary to make special laws”.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> 14 On the background to s 127, see G Sawer, “The Australian Constitution and the Australian Aborigine” (1966) 2 Federal Law Review 17, especially at 25-30.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> 15 For discussion, see George Williams, “Race and the Australian Constitution: From Federation to Reconciliation” (2000) 38 Osgoode Hall Law Journal 643 at 649-650;</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> 16 See Fr F Brennan SJ, Securing a Bountiful Place for Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders in a Modern, Free and Tolerant Australia Constitutional Centenary Foundation, 1994, at 6.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> Draft Position Paper – Constitutional Recognition of Indigenous Australians Page 9</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> Western Australia had the vote. The Commonwealth Franchise Act 1902 (Cth) was titled “An Act to provide for an Uniform Federal Franchise”. It was intended to enfranchise all Australian women. It also contained a provision in section 4 which sought to disqualify persons of coloured races from voting. Section 4 provided that:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> “No aboriginal native of Australia, Asia, Africa or the Islands of the Pacific except New Zealand shall be entitled to have his name placed on an electoral roll unless so entitled under section 41 of the Constitution.”</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> 7. Section 4 was retained, as section 39(6), in the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 (Cth). Section 39(6) was omitted by the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1962 (Cth), thereby removing all qualifications upon indigenous people’s right to vote.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> 8. At the 1967 referendum, 92% of Australians voted in favour of Constitutional amendments to remove the negative references in the Constitution to Indigenous Australians:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> (a) the words “other than the aboriginal race” were deleted from section 51(xxvi), thereby enabling the Federal Parliament to legislate for people of any race, including Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders; and</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> (b) section 127 was also repealed, with the result that Aboriginal natives were no longer excluded from being counted in the numbers of people of the Commonwealth or a State. By 1967, all Aboriginal people had the right to vote in Federal and State elections Accordingly, there was no basis for excluding them from the calculations of quotas for the constitution of the House of Representatives under section 24 of the Constitution, and no other relevant purpose for section 127.17</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> 9. The removal of negative references to Indigenous Australians raised the question of how to move beyond non-recognition to achieve appropriate substantive recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in the Constitution.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> 10. In April 1991, the Constitutional Centenary Conference held in Sydney presented to the Prime Minister, State and Territory Premiers and Chief Minsters, and Opposition Leaders a statement which recommended among other items for action that the reconciliation process should “seek to identify what rights the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have, and should have, as the indigenous peoples of Australia, and how best to secure those rights including through constitutional changes”.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> THE 1967 AMENDMENT TO SECTION 51(XXVI)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> 11. The 1967 amendment to the race power in s 51(xxvi) has produced a body of High Court jurisprudence which suggests that notwithstanding its amendment the power is capable of supporting laws which are both beneficial, as well as laws which discriminate on the ground of race.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> 12. Prior to 1967, Professor Geoffrey Sawer suggested that having regard to “the dubious origins of [section 51(xxvi)] and the dangerous potentialities of adverse discriminatory treatment which it contains, the complete repeal of the section would be preferable to any amendments intended to extend its possible benefits to the Aborigines.”18</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> 17 Ibid at 36.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> 18 G Sawer, “The Australian Constitution and the Australian Aborigine” (1966) 2 Federal Law Review 17 at 35.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> Draft Position Paper – Constitutional Recognition of Indigenous Australians Page 10</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> 13. In 1988, in its Final Report, the Constitutional Commission noted that until s 51(xxvi) was amended in 1967, Parliament could “pass special and discriminating laws” relating to the people of any race. As Professor Harrison Moore had pointed out in 1910, the provision was intended to enable the Commonwealth to pass the sort of laws which before 1900 had been passed by many States concerning “the Indian, Afghan, and Syrian hawkers; the Chinese miners, laundrymen, market gardeners, and furniture manufacturers; the Japanese settlers and Kanaka plantation labourers of Queensland, and the various coloured races employed in the pearl fisheries of Queensland and Western Australia.” The Constitutional Commission concluded:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> “It is inappropriate to retain section 51 (xxvi.) because the purposes for which, historically, it was inserted no longer apply in this country. Australia has joined the many nations which have rejected race as a legitimate criterion on which legislation can be based. The attitudes now officially adopted to discrimination on the basis of race are in striking contrast to those which motivated the Framers of the Constitution. It is appropriate that the change in attitude be reflected in the omission of section 51 (xxvi.)”.19</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> 14. In conjunction with the recommendation for the omission of section 51(xxvi), the Constitutional Commission recommended the insertion of a new paragraph (xxvi) which would give the Federal Parliament express power to make laws with respect to those groups of people who are, or are descended from, the indigenous inhabitants of different parts of Australia. The recommendation was made because:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> (a) the nation as a whole has a responsibility for Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders; and</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> (b) the new power would avoid some of the uncertainty arising from, and concern about, the wording of the existing power.20</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> 15. Further, the Constitutional Commission observed that approval of such alteration of section 51(xxvi) would retain the spirit, and make explicit the meaning, of the alteration made in 1967 which Justice Brennan has described as “an affirmation of the will of the Australian people that the odious policies of oppression and neglect of Aboriginal citizens were to be at an end, and that the primary object of the power is beneficial”.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> 16. Writing extracurially in 2003, the Hon Robert French provided a detailed overview of post 1967 High Court jurisprudence in relation to section 51(xxvi), culminating in Kartinyeri v Commonwealth (1998) 195 CLR 337, the so-called Hindmarsh Bridge decision. The Chief Justice commented that as construed by a now substantial body of High Court jurisprudence21, there is nothing in section 51(xxvi), “other than the possibility of a limiting principle of uncertain scope, to prevent its adverse application to Australian citizens simply on the basis of their race”. It followed that there is “little likelihood of any reversal of the now reasonably established proposition that the power may be used to discriminate against or for the benefit of the people of any race”.22</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> 19 Final Report of the Constitutional Commission: Summary, at 55.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> 20 Ibid.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> 21 Pre-1967 decisions include Robtelmes v Brenan (1906) 4 CLR 395; and Strickland v Rocla Concrete Pipes Ltd (1971) 124 CLR 468 at 507-8l. See discussion in J Eastick, “The Australian Aborigine: Full Commonwealth Responsibility under the Constitution” (1980) 12 Melbourne University Law Review 516. Eastick also refers at 523-531 to various statutes apparently enacted in reliance on the power in s 51(xxv).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> 22 The Hon Justice Robert French, “The Race Power: A Constitutional Chimera”, chapter 8 in HP Lee and George Winterton (eds), Australian Constitutional Landmarks (2003, Cambridge University Press) 180, 206.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> Draft Position Paper – Constitutional Recognition of Indigenous Australians Page 11</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> 17. The Chief Justice concluded by adopting the recommendation of the Constitutional Commission in 1988 that the race power be replaced by a provision empowering the Commonwealth Parliament to make laws with respect to Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders: “Such laws are based not on race but on the special place of those peoples in the history of the nation”.23</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> 18. The Law Council considers it essential that any discussion of Constitutional recognition of Indigenous Australians must involve consideration of the potentially unacceptable consequences of section 51(xxvi) in its current form, and of more appropriate approaches as suggested by, amongst others, the Constitutional Commission and the Chief Justice, the Hon Robert French.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> THE DECISION OF THE HIGH COURT IN MABO</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> 19. With the 1992 decision of the High Court in Mabo v The Commonwealth (No 2)24, the myth that Australia was terra nullius at the time of acquisition of sovereignty was finally dispelled from Australian law.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> 20. The first stage of the Federal Government's response to the decision in Mabo was the enactment of the Native Title Act 1993 (Cth), which created an opportunity for at least some Indigenous people to receive formal recognition of their customary ownership of country. The second stage was the establishment of a land fund to help address the land needs of dispossessed Indigenous people who, because of their dispossession, would rarely be able to demonstrate continuous connections to land required under the Native Title Act. This led to the establishment of the Indigenous Land Corporation to manage monies drawn down each year from the land fund.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> 21. The third stage was to be a “social justice package” consisting of further measures directed to structural reform, and to advance the cause of social justice for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. This package was promised by Prime Minister Keating in his second reading speech on the Native Title Bill. In 1994, the Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs, Mr Tickner, told the 12th Session of the UN Working Group on Indigenous Populations:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> “The social justice package presents Australia with what is likely to be the last chance this decade to put a policy framework in place to effectively address the human rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as a necessary commitment to the reconciliation process leading to the centenary of Federation in 2001.”</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> 22. In June 1993, the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation and the Constitutional Centenary Foundation convened a conference in Canberra on The Position of Indigenous People in National Constitutions to explore some of the Constitutional options with respect to Australia’s indigenous peoples.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> 23. In March 1995, comprehensive “social justice package” reports were provided to the Prime Minister by, amongst others, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC)25, the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation26</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> 23 Id at 208. and the Aboriginal</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> 24 (1992) 175 CLR 1.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> 25 ATSIC was established in 1989 under the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission Act 1989 (Cth), with the following objectives (ss section 3): to ensure maximum participation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in government policy formulation and implementation; to promote Indigenous self-management</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> Draft Position Paper – Constitutional Recognition of Indigenous Australians Page 12</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner.27 Each of these reports raised the need for Constitutional reform.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> 24. ATSIC’s “social justice package” report28 noted at [4.6] that the Commission had adopted as one of the objectives in its corporate plan the securing of Constitutional recognition of special status and cultural identity of indigenous peoples. In its submission to the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation, the Commission had pointed out that constitutional change is an issue which is "quite central to redefining ourselves as a nation in a way that would promote meaningful reconciliation..."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> “4.7 "With the rejection of the doctrine of terra nullius and the emerging legal view that the powers of Government belong to and are derived from the governed that is to say the people of the Commonwealth we consider that constitutional change should not be minimalist. There needs to be recognition in the Constitution that the sovereign power accorded to Governments is derived from the people including the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples whose native title rights predate British colonisation."”</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> 25. According to ATSIC’s “social justice package” report at [4.8], the development of the details of an Indigenous constitutional reform agenda would inevitably take some time to emerge, however broad options raised to date had been brought together in a publication by the Constitutional Centenary Foundation entitled "Securing a Bountiful Place for Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders in a Modern, Free and Tolerant Australia." The options raised in the discussion paper were to:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> • maintain the present situation and do nothing;</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> • seek to recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, their history and their culture in the Constitution;</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> • enshrine the principle of non discrimination;</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> • grant the Commonwealth primacy over indigenous affairs;</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> • negotiate an instrument of reconciliation;</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> • recognise indigenous people's entitlement to self determination;</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> • grant self government to remote communities; and</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> • recognise the inherent sovereignty of indigenous peoples.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> 26. ATSIC’s “social justice package” report noted [4.14]-[4.15]:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> “4.14 Processes will need to be set up to facilitate the negotiation of the indigenous constitutional reform agenda with the Government, to provide for effective educational and public awareness for both the indigenous and wider communities and to ensure ongoing indigenous involvement in broader processes which could lead to constitutional reform.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> and self-sufficiency; to further Indigenous economic, social and cultural development, and to ensure co-ordination of Commonwealth, state, territory and local government policy affecting Indigenous people.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> 26 The Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation was established in 1991 as a statutory authority under the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation Act 1991 (Cth) "to improve the relationships between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and the wider Australian community."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> 27 The position of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner was created by the Federal Parliament in December 1992 in response to the findings of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody and the National Inquiry into Racist Violence.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> 28ATSIC, Recognition, Rights and Reform: Report to Government on Native Title Social Justice Measures, Commonwealth of Australia 1995.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> Draft Position Paper – Constitutional Recognition of Indigenous Australians Page 13</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> 4.15 Consultations: There was overwhelming support from all meetings on the Social Justice package that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples must be given proper recognition in Australia's Constitution.”</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> 27. ATSIC’s “social justice package” report contained the following recommendations in relation to Constitutional reform:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> RECOMMENDATION 19.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> The Commonwealth Government should note that the national consultation process in relation to the Social Justice Package showed overwhelming support for the reform of the Constitution especially in relation to recognition of Indigenous peoples.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> RECOMMENDATION 20.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> The Commonwealth Government should adequately resource a process to manage the Indigenous constitutional reform agenda after consultation with ATSIC and the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> RECOMMENDATION 21.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> The Commonwealth Government should commit itself to regional, zone or State-based conventions to discuss options for Constitutional reform and to the principle of negotiating Constitutional reform and adequately resourcing these negotiations.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> RECOMMENDATION 22.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> Prior to any constitutional referendum, the opinion of the Indigenous community should itself be canvassed through appropriate means, including, perhaps, a survey of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander opinion conducted in conjunction with an ATSIC election.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> The Commonwealth Government should commit itself to a major public awareness program to create an environment for change and understanding of indigenous Constitutional perspectives.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> RECOMMENDATION 23.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> The Commonwealth Government should commit itself to a major public awareness program to create an environment for change and understanding of indigenous Constitutional perspectives.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> RECOMMENDATION 24.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> The Commonwealth Government shall ensure that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are adequately represented In any national constitutional convention which is held as part of broader processes.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> 28. In its “social justice package” report, the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation29 made the following recommendations in relation to the Australian Constitution:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> “Acknowledging the True Place of Indigenous Peoples within the Nation</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> 29 Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation, Going Forward: Social Justice for the First Australians, Commonwealth of Australia 1995.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> Draft Position Paper – Constitutional Recognition of Indigenous Australians Page 14</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> 7. The Council recommends that an appropriate new preamble to the Constitution be prepared for submission to referendum with such preamble to acknowledge the prior occupation and ownership, and continuing dispossession of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> 8. The Council recommends that ATSIC and the Council be funded to conduct a consultation program with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and organisations and with the wider community on what would be appropriate forms of words to be written as a new preamble to the Constitution with this process concluding by the end of 1996.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> 9. The Council recommends that such a consultation process should be undertaken on a cross-party basis with the report being provided to the Parliament.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> 10. The Council recommends that any constitutional reforms dealing with the rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples include a question to remove the power of any State to disenfranchise any citizens on the grounds of their race.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> Constitutional Prohibition of Discrimination on the Grounds of Race</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> 11. The Council recommends that, in conjunction with other referendum questions dealing with indigenous issues, the proposition also be put that the Commonwealth's power to legislate to outlaw racial discrimination be entrenched in the Constitution.”</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> 29. In relation to recommendation 11 concerning a Constitutional prohibition of discrimination on the grounds of race, the report of the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation explained as follows:30</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> “At the same time as a referendum question is put to repeal the race-related provisions of Section 25 of the Constitution, an opportunity would arise to pose a positive question to entrench in the Constitution a new clause which would explicitly prohibit the making of laws which discriminate on the grounds of race (save where such a provision was for the specific benefit of the race involved) and providing that the Commonwealth has the power to legislate to outlaw all forms of discrimination on the grounds of race.”</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> 30. The submission of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner, Mick Dodson, identified broad-ranging examples of possible Constitutional change to illustrate the potential range that could be considered:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> 1) educate the public and governments and improve race relations by stating that Indigenous peoples are unique, with unique status and history quite unlike more recent immigrants;</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> 2) commit Federal, State and Territory governments to equalise public services and facilities within their borders to remove regional and racial disparities;</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> 3) provide a legal and/or moral framework for public policy towards Indigenous peoples, perhaps through a preamble to an Indigenous peoples section of the</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> 30 Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation, Going Forward: Social Justice for the First Australians, Commonwealth of Australia 1995.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> Draft Position Paper – Constitutional Recognition of Indigenous Australians Page 15</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> Constitution, with Indigenous peoples and governments to negotiate the detailed contents of the section later;</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> 4) guarantee legal protection for treaties, land claims settlements or other agreements between Indigenous peoples and governments;</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> 5) specify certain rights of Indigenous peoples;</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> 6) alter the system of political representation to better reflect the diversity of community and the make up of the Australian population (for example, through multiple seats in one electorate);</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> 7) create Indigenous Parliaments for Torres Strait Islanders and Aborigines through which we can decide matters, govern areas or advise the national parliament (as in Norway);</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> 8) provide for customary law courts and dispute resolution;</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> 9) establish responsibility of different levels of government, including Indigenous governing bodies for services or other matters pertaining to Indigenous peoples after a full review of the adequacy and relevance of current spending;</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> 10) establish or recognise Indigenous self-government in principle or in specific geographic areas (like Torres Strait or the Tiwi islands or the Pitjantjatjara lands), or for certain categories of subjects (such as sacred sites);</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> 11) establish Torres Strait Island and Aboriginal grants commissions to fund Indigenous self-government;</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> 12) establish ecologically sustainable development planning commissions to develop integrated self-government, economic and environmental plans and structures for lands and seas under Indigenous management;</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> 13) establish national Indigenous land rights and sea rights or processes to define such rights nationally;</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> 14) commit governments to constitutional conferences or other processes with Indigenous people to discuss specified subjects like land and marine rights, self-government, funding and delivery of services (as did s 37 of Canada's Constitution Act, further formal political accords); or</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> 15) add one or more Indigenous treaty or statement to the Constitution as an appendix or schedule, together with provisions for interpretation and application.”31</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> 31 The submission noted that: “Of course, many proposals among those listed above could be enshrined in special legislation of the Australian Parliament, or achieved in a variety of other ways. No less important will be ensuring that well-intended amendments proposed by others do not have unforeseen negative effects.”</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> Draft Position Paper – Constitutional Recognition of Indigenous Australians Page 16</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> 31. In relation to Constitutional reform, the submission of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner contained the following recommendations:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> “1. That recognition of the unique place of Indigenous peoples in contemporary Australia be a fundamental principle in any national constitutional review and revision, that this include recognising the right of Indigenous peoples to represent ourselves in negotiation of constitutional change with governments.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> 2. That the Federal Government, in consultation with the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation, ATSIC, the Constitutional Centenary Foundation and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner establish structures and processes of constitutional reform and national renewal which are building towards the new millennium and the centenary of the Constitution in 2001.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> 3. That Indigenous constitutional structures and processes provide for access by all sections of the Indigenous community through consultations and public forums to the development of positions of negotiations with governments. This will require sufficient resources for the preparation of information and consultation materials, as well as the equitable funding of forums or groups for the expression of diverse views.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> 4. That structures and processes for Indigenous constitutional recognition and reform be directed not only to achieving specific rights but to continuing processes for the renewal of relations between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians.”</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> 32. After an extensive public consultation process, the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation drew up two documents of reconciliation: the “Australian Declaration Towards Reconciliation” and the “Roadmap for Reconciliation”. On 27 May 2000, at Corroboree 2000, the Council presented these documents of reconciliation to the Prime Minister, other national leaders, and the nation as a whole. The “Roadmap for Reconciliation” consisted of various strategies, including “The National Strategy to Promote Recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Rights”. The strategy proposed a number of actions, including some constitutional and legislative processes, to assist the progressive resolution of outstanding issues for the recognition and enjoyment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander rights. It aimed to ensure:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> • “that all Australians enjoy, in daily life, a fundamental equality of rights, opportunities and acceptance of responsibilities; and</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> • the status and unique identities of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the first peoples of Australia, achieve recognition, respect and understanding in the wider community.”</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> 33. Essential actions identified by the strategy included:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> “Legislation</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> • Governments establish legislative processes to deal with the 'unfinished business' of reconciliation, allowing for negotiated outcomes on matters such as Indigenous rights, self-determination within the life of the nation, and constitutional reform.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> Australian Constitution</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> Draft Position Paper – Constitutional Recognition of Indigenous Australians Page 17</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> • Within the broader context of future constitutional reform, the Commonwealth Parliament enacts legislation for a referendum which seeks to:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> o prepare a new preamble to the Constitution which recognises the status of the first Australians; and</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> o remove section 25 of the Constitution and introduce a new section making it unlawful to adversely discriminate against any people on the grounds of race.”</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> 34. In Final Report to the Prime Minister and the Commonwealth Parliament in December 2000, the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation made, amongst others, the following recommendation in relation to the “manner of giving effect to” the reconciliation documents:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> “3. The Commonwealth Parliament prepare legislation for a referendum which seeks to:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> • recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the first peoples of Australia in a new preamble to the Constitution; and</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> • remove section 25 of the Constitution and introduce a new section making it unlawful to adversely discriminate against any people on the grounds of race.”</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> 35. The Law Council considers that any debate leading to a referendum must have regard to the comprehensive consultations undertaken by each of ATSIC, the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner in relation to options for Constitutional recognition, as well as the detailed consideration and recommendations by each of those bodies in relation to options for and processes leading to Constitutional reform.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> SOME COMPARATIVE EXPERIENCES</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> 36. Constitutional reforms in Norway have resulted in recognition of the country as bi-cultural - Norwegian and Sami - and a guarantee to the Sami people of means to maintain their distinct culture. A 1988 constitutional amendment provides:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> “It is the responsibility of the authorities of the State to create conditions enabling the Sami people to preserve and develop its language, culture and way of life.”</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> 37. In Canada, processes of constitutional reform were initiated in 1978. Section 35(1) of the Constitution Act 1982 provides:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> “The existing Aboriginal and treaty rights of the Aboriginal peoples of Canada are hereby recognized and affirmed.”</span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> 38. Section 35(2) provides that the reference in s 35(1) to “treaty rights” includes rights that now exist by way of land claims agreements or may be so acquired.</span></div></div>39. Constitutional recognition has meant that Aboriginal and treaty rights can only be altered or terminated by consent or by constitutional amendment. Laws contravening s 35(1) can be set aside under s 52(1) of the Constitution Act 1982. The Canadian Supreme Court has confirmed that the words of s 35(1) should be given a generous, purposive interpretation.<br />
Draft Position Paper – Constitutional Recognition of Indigenous Australians Page 18<br />
40. Section 25 creates an exemption to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which forms Part I of the Constitution Act 1982:<br />
“The guarantee of this Charter of certain rights and freedoms shall not be construed so as to derogate from any Aboriginal, treaty or other rights or freedoms that pertain to the Aboriginal peoples of Canada including ... any rights or freedoms that may be acquired by the Aboriginal peoples of Canada by way of land claims settlement.”</div>Marcia Langtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00502178137076460574noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6869350150147084263.post-45642922883142188962010-12-26T14:15:00.001+11:002010-12-26T14:23:35.643+11:00Bloggers who get it<div style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>David Donovan's blog on indigenous recognition in the constitution is informative and respectful: <a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_1272640611"> </a><a href="http://www.independentaustralia.net/2010/republic/indigenous-recognition-and-the-future-of-constitutional-reform-in-australia/">Indigenous Recognition and the future of constitutional reform in Australia</a></b></span></div><div style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>He discusses the prospects for success of a question or questions on recognition of Indigenous Australians put to Australian voters at a referendum. He also outlines the policy of the Australian Republican Movement on this matter:</b></span></div><div style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><a href="http://www.republic.org.au/page/australian-republican-movement-policy">Policy of the Australian Republican Movement</a> </b></span></div><div style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> </div>Marcia Langtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00502178137076460574noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6869350150147084263.post-17698583862248326082010-12-26T10:51:00.002+11:002010-12-26T20:16:02.711+11:00Victoria was the first State in Australia to give constitutional recognition to Aboriginal people<div style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/AILR/2005/10.html">Constitution (Recognition of Aboriginal People) Act 2004 (Vic)</a></div><div style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</div><h1 align="center" style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b><i>Constitution (Recognition of Aboriginal People) Act 2004</i></b><b> (Vic)</b></h1><div style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Act No 73/2004</div><div style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Assented to 9 November 2004</div><div style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Commenced on 10 November 2004</div><h4 style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=6869350150147084263&postID=1769858386224832608" name="Heading9"></a><b><i>An Act to amend the </i></b><b>Constitution Act 1975<i> to give recognition within that Act to Victoria’s Aboriginal people and their contribution to the State of Victoria.</i></b></h4><h2 style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=6869350150147084263&postID=1769858386224832608" name="Heading11"></a><b>Introduction</b></h2><div style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">With the commencement of the <i><a class="autolink_findacts" href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/coaca430/">Constitution</a> (Recognition of <a class="ml-smartlink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aboriginal_people">Aboriginal People</a>) Act 2004 </i>(Vic), Victoria became the first Australian state to recognise Indigenous people in its constitution. The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner Tom Calma congratulated the Victorian government and opposition parties, saying that </div><div style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">[t]he amendment to Victoria's constitution can be more than the simple recognition of an historical truth. It can provide an opportunity to learn from the past and ensure that the original custodians continue to play a significant role in contemporary society.<sup><a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/AILR/2005/10.html#fn1" name="fnB1">[1]</a></sup></div><div style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Victoria’s move may be followed by other states, with the Western Australian government now considering a change to the WA <a class="autolink_findacts" href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/coaca430/">Constitution</a> to recognise <a class="ml-smartlink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indigenous_people">Indigenous people</a> as its first inhabitants.</div><h2 style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=6869350150147084263&postID=1769858386224832608" name="Heading19"></a><b><i>Constitution (Recognition of Aboriginal People) Act 2004</i></b></h2><div style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">The Parliament of Victoria enacts as follows:</div><h4 style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=6869350150147084263&postID=1769858386224832608" name="Heading22"></a><b>1. Purpose</b></h4><div style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">The purpose of this Act is to amend the <i><a class="autolink_findacts" href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/coaca430/">Constitution</a> Act 1975</i> to give recognition within</div><div style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">that Act to Victoria’s Aboriginal people and their contribution to the <a class="ml-smartlink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_of_Victoria">State of Victoria</a>.</div><h4 style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=6869350150147084263&postID=1769858386224832608" name="Heading27"></a><b>2. Commencement</b></h4><div style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">This Act comes into operation on the day after the day on which it receives the Royal Assent.</div><h4 style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=6869350150147084263&postID=1769858386224832608" name="_Toc72893146"></a><a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=6869350150147084263&postID=1769858386224832608" name="Heading31"></a><b>3. New section 1A inserted</b></h4><div style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">After <a class="autolink_findacts" href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/coaca430/s1.html">section 1</a> of the <i><a class="autolink_findacts" href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/coaca430/">Constitution</a> Act 1975</i><b> insert –</b></div><div style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=6869350150147084263&postID=1769858386224832608" name="_Toc72893147"></a>“1A. Recognition of Aboriginal people</div><blockquote style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">(1) The Parliament acknowledges that the events described in the preamble to this Act occurred without proper consultation, recognition or involvement of the Aboriginal people of Victoria.</blockquote><blockquote style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">(2) The Parliament recognises that Victoria's Aboriginal people, as the original custodians of the land on which the <a class="ml-smartlink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colony_of_Victoria">Colony of Victoria</a> was established –</blockquote><blockquote style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">(a) have a unique status as the descendants of Australia's first people; and<br />
<br />
(b) have a spiritual, social, cultural and economic relationship with their traditional lands and waters within Victoria; and<br />
<br />
(c) have made a unique and irreplaceable contribution to the identity and well-being of Victoria.</blockquote><blockquote style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">(3) The Parliament does not intend by this section –</blockquote><blockquote style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">(a) to create in any person any legal right or give rise to any civil cause of action; or<br />
<br />
(b) to affect in any way the interpretation of this Act or of any other law in force in Victoria.”.</blockquote><h4 style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=6869350150147084263&postID=1769858386224832608" name="_Toc72893148"></a><a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=6869350150147084263&postID=1769858386224832608" name="Heading53"></a><b>4. Entrenchment of new section 1A</b></h4><div style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Before <a class="autolink_findacts" href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/coaca430/s18.html">section 18(2)(a)</a> of the <i><a class="autolink_findacts" href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/coaca430/">Constitution</a> Act 1975 </i><b>insert</b> –</div><blockquote style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">“(aa) section 1A; or”.</blockquote><hr style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><sup style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/AILR/2005/10.html#fnB1" name="fn1">[1]</a></sup><span style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> </span><a class="ml-smartlink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_rights_and_equal_opportunity_commission" style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission</a><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">, ‘Commissioner Welcomes Constitutional Recognition for Historical Truth’ (Press Release, 5 November 2</span>004).Marcia Langtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00502178137076460574noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6869350150147084263.post-90048962736803527852010-12-26T10:45:00.003+11:002010-12-26T20:16:20.576+11:00How NSW could constitutionally recognise Aboriginal people . . .<div style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.apo.org.au/research/constitutional-recognition-aboriginal-people">Constitutional recognition of Aboriginal people by Gareth Griffith, NSW Parliamentary Library and Research Service</a></div><div style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">This is how constitutional recognition of Aboriginal people could look in New South Wales, proposes Gareth Griffith:</div><div style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span class="date-display-single">05 August 2010</span>For the purpose of honouring and recognising the unique historical position of <a class="ml-smartlink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aboriginal_people">Aboriginal people</a>, the NSW Government proposes to amend the Constitution Act 1902 (NSW) by the insertion of a new section 2A. The proposed section reads as follows: </div><div style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">(a) The People and Parliament of New South Wales acknowledge and honour the Aboriginal people as the first people and nations of the State, and</div><div style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">(b) The People and Parliament of New South Wales recognise that Aboriginal people have a spiritual, social, and cultural relationship with their traditional lands and waters and have made a unique and lasting contribution to the identity of New South Wales.</div><div style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">(c) Nothing in this section creates in any person any legal right or gives rise to any civil cause of action, or affects the interpretation of this Act or any other law in force in <a class="ml-smartlink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_south_wales">New South Wales</a>.</div><div style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">The Constitution of NSW presently does not have a preamble, nor does it have other express recognition of Aboriginal People. As the Constitution is an Act of Parliament it may be readily amended by an amending Act and this has been done over 80 times since 1902.<br />
<br />
See also Lawyers Weekly on NSW Constitutional recognition of Aboriginal people: <a href="http://www.lawyersweekly.com.au/blogs/top_stories/archive/2010/06/21/constitutional-recognition-of-aboriginal-people.aspx">http://www.lawyersweekly.com.au/blogs/top_stories/archive/2010/06/21/constitutional-recognition-of-aboriginal-people.aspx</a> </div>Marcia Langtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00502178137076460574noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6869350150147084263.post-19067874416439205062010-12-25T20:46:00.007+11:002010-12-26T20:56:35.110+11:00Why we need constitutional change - documents<div style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtFxpHfZ9B0y-ESg9SijxGwzCsi1DnFm_gm-EbCwnvR-j0H6xwR1-b9XrXqnnmRq-Q0QPSp3pzE8OnNFY5N2uwXt7SQXS_VB8eXuzjkes8bzgAbyhuIURSUT_kFMjg8Tjrva7xsQZmTjc/s1600/cth15_72_p2bark_1963_30.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtFxpHfZ9B0y-ESg9SijxGwzCsi1DnFm_gm-EbCwnvR-j0H6xwR1-b9XrXqnnmRq-Q0QPSp3pzE8OnNFY5N2uwXt7SQXS_VB8eXuzjkes8bzgAbyhuIURSUT_kFMjg8Tjrva7xsQZmTjc/s1600/cth15_72_p2bark_1963_30.jpg" /></a><b><span style="font-size: small;"> </span><span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: large;">Why we need constitutional change</span></b></div><b><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-size: small;">Our Constitution does not recognise the First Australians. In fact it enables governments to discriminate against under the 'race power.' The referendum of 1967, while it resulted in indigenous people being counted in the census and gave the Commonwealth the power to legislate on indigenous matters, did not give us recognition or equality. Even though the Racial Discrimination Act foribids racism, governments continue to discriminate. Could constitutional amendment stop discrimination against us? Many years ago, I became interested in the Makarrarta campaign that the Aboriginal Treaty Committee and the National Aboriginal Congress pursued. The problem was then, as it is now, that indigenous Australians have no status in the nation other than as ordinary citizens, which clearly we are not: we are the inheritors of ancient Australian traditions, including polities, or tribes, or clans. These long predate the Annexation of Australia and the Australian Constitution. Various statutes define our status in very limited ways, although some give quite important rights, but always at the pleasure of the Crown of the day. The following documents are a potted history of my own interests in constitutional issues and the way that indigenous Australians have argued for a better deal from the nation state that was built on our land:</span></b></div><div style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_1009153055"><b><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></b></a></div><div style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_1009153055"><b><span style="font-size: small;"> Agreements, Treaties and Negotiated Settlements</span></b></a></div><div style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_1009153055"><b><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></b></a></div><div style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.abc.net.au/rn/deakin/stories/s300007.htm"><b><span style="font-size: small;">The nations of Australia. The Alfred Deakin lecture by Marcia Langton, 2000</span></b></a></div><div style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></b></div><div style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></b></div><div style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: small;">There's more to come. </span></b></div><div style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></b></div><div style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></b></div><div style="background-color: orange; color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></b></div><div style="background-color: orange; color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: small;"> <a href="http://www.atns.net.au/">http://www.atns.net.au</a></span></b></div>Marcia Langtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00502178137076460574noreply@blogger.com2