Senate debates

Monday, 22 September 2014

Documents

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples Act of Recognition Review Panel––Final report by the Honourable John Anderson AO, Ms Tanya Hosch and Mr Richard Eccles, dated September 2014. [Received 19 September 2014]

5:19 pm

Photo of Rachel SiewertRachel Siewert (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | | Hansard source

by leave—I move:

That the Senate take note of the document.

This is an important report that has been tabled by a committee that was established under the act of recognition that was passed in this place at the end of 2012. The review panel was put in place by the government, as was required under this act. It consisted of the Honourable John Anderson, who chaired the committee, Tanya Hosch and Richard Eccles. They undertook a wide range of consultation on the report. They tabled the report last week and made a number of recommendations which I think are important. Some of them I support more than others, but there are a number of things that I think are particularly important. Firstly, they confirmed that there is broad support for recognition and acknowledgement of the first peoples of this land. I refer to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders as the first people of this land because they make the point that they were here before there was an Australia—and I think that is an important point.

The committee, in its report, made the point that awareness of around the issue of recognition has slipped a bit. That is concerning and I think it goes directly to the matter of the timing of the referendum—if in fact we are going to have one. The committee said that there needs to be more work done on awareness and an understanding of why it is important that we recognise the first peoples of the land. They think it is particularly important and that it needs to be done before we have the referendum. Awareness has dropped to about 40 per cent. I would be very concerned if it dropped any lower. The committee also points out that there is a need for further investment in awareness raising and having those conversations with the community. I can back that up from the work that the parliamentary joint committee has been doing and the consultation process that the committee has been undertaking. I have been on the road with that particular committee.

I think there has been a drop in awareness. But they also want to know more about why constitutional recognition is important. They want to engage in the debate and they have made the point that there needs to be more resources in the community to generate that debate. They also talk about the fact that there need to be preconditions before a referendum could be undertaken successfully. One of those is the need for a final proposition. What in fact are we are talking about? What is the question that will be put to our community about what I consider to be the rightful place of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in our Constitution? They said that part of that needs to be an understanding of the time frame in terms of when a referendum will be held and that there also needs to be renewed commitment and urgency across stakeholders, particularly from the leadership in Australia. When they talk about leadership, they talk in particular about political parties and the need for multiparty support.

They also talk about the need for investment in raising the profile and understanding of recognition in the Constitution. They talk about the need for a circuit-breaker and I endorse that particular point. There is a need for a circuit-breaker, because we seem to have been talking about the general issues around recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, and particularly since the expert panel tabled its report there has been this constant talk about it, which is good—I am not saying it is not good—but the point here is that we need to be moving on.

The committee also said that there needs to be an immediate imperative to remove any sense of ambiguity. I think that is particularly important. Australians do want to move on to recognising Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders in our Constitution and the fact that they were here before European settlement. They make the point about crystallising the question to be put to Australian voters and that it needs to be more than symbolic. But, while they are saying it needs to be more than symbolic, they are also saying that we should not underestimate the importance of the symbolism that will come with it. Finding that right balance between symbolic, symbolism and substance in the change is really important because the overwhelming message that comes through not only in their report but also in the other work that has been done is that there has to be substance to the change.

The committee also talked about the general community but in particular the fact that the people they spoke to also talked about the need for support for recognition by the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. They also made the point in their report that people were concerned about special treatment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. My note here is that part of the awareness process and why we need to be talking about why recognition is needed is recognising the special place that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders as the original peoples of this land have and why that needs to be recognised. They also briefly touch on the issues that people have raised about sovereignty and treaties, the point being that no treaty was ever made between the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and European settlers or, as some people would say, invaders. Sovereignty was never ceded and a treaty or treaties were never made. The issues around a treaty or treaties are constantly brought up and they question whether people's eventual ability to seek a treaty or treaties would be undermined by constitutional recognition. I am convinced by the legal argument that in fact it will not. People might want to take up that issue down the track. It is an issue that is coming up.

The committee make the point that they see some key issues as being important in the process of recognition when we amend the Constitution and that is the place of a statement of recognition, whilst getting rid of clause 52, the race clause. The other race clause is section 51(xxvi). That needs to be reformulated in some way to avoid the potential for perverse outcomes, particularly relating to the Commonwealth's responsibility and ability to make laws for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, which, certainly on my understanding, is what people, overwhelmingly, still want the Commonwealth to do.

The important point they make about timing is that it needs to be done by the first half of 2017, which is slightly in conflict with the joint committee that, last week, made a statement that said it should be on or before the election. The first half of 2017 still expresses the point that it needs to be done sooner rather than later and that there is a deep concern that it will certainly lose momentum if we go beyond 2017.

Another recommendation they make is the need to amend the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples Recognition Act 2013, which has a sunset clause of 2015. I think it is patently obvious to everybody that we are not going to make 2015 as a possible referendum date. Therefore, it is particularly important—and it is an important point they make—that that act be amended, because it would be very unfortunate if that act disappeared in its sunset clause by 2015.

We have not yet finished our journey on the recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. We are on a journey. It is very important and absolutely essential that we get this right but not let it go out too far. We need to be raising awareness, we need to be investing, we need that circuit-breaker and we need leadership by this parliament. The Greens are certainly committed to do our utmost to ensure that we are moving towards formulating a question and ensuring that we get a good outcome from a referendum to recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in our Constitution, bearing in mind that they are not recognised or even mentioned in our Constitution. And, until we fix that, I do not believe that we have a strong and effective Constitution if the people who were in this land before European settlement are not recognised. I seek leave to continue my remarks later.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.