As Reconciliation Week kicks off, discussion on possible changes to the constitution to recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island people is heating up.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
“Reconciliation seems to be a bit of a dirty word,” Kelvin Brown said.
“People seem to think that you give up something when you reconcile. Well what you give up is enmity. What you give up is bad feelings. What you give up is challenges to rightful ways of thinking.”
What a reform would mean
- Led by advocacy group Recognise, many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are seeking changes to the constitution to acknowledge their status as the Australia’s first people, and to remove articles believed to permit racial discrimination.
- The changes would not include giving over land, but would recognise Indigenous people as the first sovereign people of Australia.
- The only way to change the Australian constitution is through a referendum, which is currently being developed by the Referendum Council.
- For the referendum to succeed, over 50 per cent of Australians must vote ‘yes’. The majority must also vote ‘yes’ in at least four of the six states.
- Recognise want to remove Section 25, which states “if by the law of any State all persons of any race are disqualified from voting at elections...persons of that race resident in that State shall not be counted."
- They also hope to remove Section 51 (xxvi), which gives the Parliament the power to make laws with respect to “the people of any race for whom it is deemed necessary to make special laws”.
- An Indigenous summit on the changes instead advocated the creation of a body of Indigenous people to advise the Parliament, and government treaties.
Is it time for change?
As a part of the national committee on the Myall Creek massacre, Mr Brown recently met with advocacy group Recognise, and said he wholeheartedly supports their push to change the Australian constitution.
Recognise wants Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island people to be recognised as the first sovereign people of this land in the constitution, and to remove two articles which they believe allow for racial discrimination.
A national convention of Indigenous leaders in Uluru last week rejected symbolic recognition in the constitution in favour of creating a ‘First Nations Voice’ elected by Indigenous people to advise the Parliament, and a commission to supervise treaties with the government.
Mr Brown said there was no need to reject constitutional reform in favour of a treaty.
“They’re two different things. You don’t have to put one over the other - they can work side by side,” he said.
“All of these can be done, and it can be done quite easily without any harm to anyone, and it doesn’t mean that the country’s being taken away from the majority of Australians, it just means that Aboriginal people will have that recognition that they want, need and deserve.
“It also means they have the voice in parliament that they want, need and deserve, and we will also have that treaty that they want, need and deserve. That way we cover all the bases.”
Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce’s dismissed the proposed First Nations Voice, which he said was “not going to happen”.
"If you overreach in politics and ask for something that will not be supported by the Australian people such as another chamber in politics or something that sort of sits above or beside the Senate, that idea just won't fly," he said.
Mr Brown disagreed and pointed to New Zealand as a practical example. Seven positions in New Zealand Parliament are reserved for Maori representatives, voted in by Maori people.
“Everyone seems to get scared when we talk about constitutional reform and treaties and other things like that. There’s no need for fear. This is something that should have been done many years ago,” he said.