Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner Mick Gooda says the process of Indigenous constitutional recognition is too slow and has called for the government to reconsider its timeframe for a national referendum on the issue.
In a speech on Thursday at the University of Notre Dame’s Broome campus, Commissioner Gooda said Australia had a proud history of advocating human rights but failed to advance those of Indigenous people.
“Somehow for us, our situation is so dire that governments and significant others can justify the non-recognition and removal of our rights for the ‘greater good’ without discussion, without engagement and certainly without our agreement," he said.
Commissioner Gooda, who sat on the 2010 Expert Panel on Constitutional Recognition, said public consultation had showed the majority of Australians supported Indigenous constitutional recognition.
"We can't afford to have the course for recognition burdened by complacency and administrative processes that eat up time, energy and enthusiasm."
“They wanted a statement of recognition that acknowledged Australia was first occupied by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, our continuing relationship with our traditional lands and waters, respect for our continuing cultures, languages and heritage and finally, the need to secure the advancement of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples,” he said.
Commissioner Gooda said he had hoped the government would act quickly on the recommendations after they were presented to then-prime minister Julia Gillard in 2012, but that was not the case.
Instead he said the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples Recognition Act was passed in 2013 to “foster momentum for a referendum for constitutional recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples” and since then, the movement has stalled.
“It is now in the latter part of 2014, with the Act of Recognition due to lapse in around six months’ time and we have had the Expert Panel, a Joint Select Committee convened, lapse, reconvened, a Panel to review the Act of Recognition and it seems that for all of this, we are only one preliminary report closer to a model for recognition being released, which will undoubtedly require another round of consultation,” he said.
Commissioner Gooda said he was dismayed that a national referendum might not take place until 2017 and said it should be made a priority.
“The reasoning with this thinking is that 2016 is an election year and its best not to confuse a general election with such an important issue that will be the subject of this referendum,” he said.
He called on the government to consider revising a timeframe for the referendum.
"Taking into account the work that has already been done and the work still to do, it is my belief that a more realistic timetable that avoids the election issue but also allows maximum support to be gathered behind this by the public is at the end of 2015."
“It is shocking to me that in 2014 we are still a country that has ties to our racist past, of the darker periods in our nation’s history, such as the White Australia Policy that had at its core the destruction of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families, communities and culture,” he said.
“Australia no longer stands for these attitudes.
“By recognising Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples and removing discrimination, we are sending a powerful message about the way we wish to see ourselves as a nation, as Australians.
“We are saying that we truly believe in equality, in a fair go and in non-discrimination for all Australians.
“We are saying that we truly respect and honour the 60,000 years of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander history that is currently missing from our nation’s founding document.”
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