Nigel Scullion (NT, Country Liberal Party, Minister for Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—I'd like to make a couple of comments on my colleague's contribution. What I should point out, and my colleague may not be aware of it, as you rose to your feet, Senator Dodson, and said, 'We support recognition of Indigenous Australians in the Constitution,' is that so do we. I want to make that absolutely clear. What we've indicated is that, in relation to the establishment of this committee, we need to ensure we have some bipartisanship. I understand that we're continuing down that line. Mr Shorten and Mr Turnbull have had an exchange of letters dealing with one thing—that is, the parameters and the terms of reference for this parliamentary committee.

It's very important to say that we didn't think we should put something to the Australian people that would fail, because it was simply four words: a voice to parliament. There was not a single piece of information that went behind that, and that's what disappointed us so much. On that basis, we weren't prepared to put that to the Australian people. What we are prepared to do is ensure that the terms of reference consider all of those recommendations.

We're not saying to the committee, 'You can't consider these matters.' This is to be a multiparty committee, and we've ensured that that is the case. I think we have got down to six of the 18 terms of reference that were put forward. We'll continue to work in a multipartisan way to ensure that this committee is the committee that can make some recommendations to the Australian people that we can take forward.