The Joint Select Committee on Constitutional Recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, with members from both houses of parliament, tables its final report after working for nearly two years. It recommends that the referendum be held when there is the highest chance of success, without nominating a date, and repeal of the race-based provisions of our current Constitution (s 25 and s 51(xxvi)) [Recs 2-4,9]. Three legal options are proposed without favouring any one and no final form of words is recommended. Of particular interest to republicans, is the call for “constitutional conventions as a mechanism for building support for a referendum and engaging a broad cross-section of the community while focussing the debate” [Rec 7] and that a day be set aside in both Houses of Parliament to debate the report’s recommendations [Rec 1]. However, Chair Ken Wyatt’s forward, foreshadows major problems for this referendum, by noting that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people seek nothing less than protection from racial discrimination in the Constitution itself (as opposed to only under the the Racial Discrimination Act). See also our News Item for 30 January 2015. The link below will take you to the Chair’s foreward and a link for downloading the Committee’s report.
Woman for an Australian Republic, Adelaide Ironside, republican poet and artist 1831-1867
Self portrait 1855, Newcastle Art Gallery NSW
