Public gets say on indigenous vote

In a step towards constitutional change for Indigenous Australians, two rivals united for change.

The group of around 50 protesters were accusing indigenous leaders of “selling out” by agreeing to progress constitutional recognition without enough consultation.

Instead, the summit agreed to a process designed to achieve consensus on a referendum question before the election due next year.

Aboriginal leader Pat Dodson called Monday’s discussions “historic and terribly meaningful” while Kirstie Parker, from the National Congress of Australia’s First Peoples, said the meeting had been constructive.

The Australian Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition have said that they are committed to holding a referendum on recognizing the First Australians in the country’s constitution.

“I think there’s a commitment not to let this drift or suffer from amnesia, but also not to rush it because we may get it wrong”, he said.

About 40 public forums will be held around the country, to give all Australians the opportunity to have their say on a referendum question. They will start in September, after both major parties discuss the referendum in their party rooms when parliament resumes in August after its winter recess.

Debate will be informed by a discussion paper developed by the parliamentary committee that recommended the referendum question should include some form of ban on racial discrimination.

An Ipsos Fairfax poll released on Monday showed 85% of Australians were in favour of a clause being added to the constitution to recognise Australia’s first people, up from 77% in 2013.

A series of community conferences will be held to deal with the issue of indigenous recognition in the constitution.

In a joint statement after the summit, indigenous leaders rejected a minimalist approach.

‘This is serious time for us to contemplate how we want to go forward and look for common ground as opposed to what’s the adversarial points we can score off each other, ‘ he told reporters.

But he said what was presented to the people had to be “something that can be owned ultimately by the vast majority of the people of our country”.

The Greens also highlighted the importance of community involvement.

“At the same time, more than 40 per cent of total daily energy consumption among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people is reported to be from unhealthier foods and drinks which are high in saturated fats, sugars, salt and alcohol”.

Indigenous leaders made it plain at the outset that purely symbolic change would not win the support of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and reaffirmed this view after the meeting.

“The whole objective is not to be them-and-us but to be one people at the end of this process”, he said.