ANTaR Victoria’s principled response to the recommendations of the Expert Panel on Constitutional Reform – full text
ANTaR Victoria supports the recommendations made by the Expert Panel on Constitutional Recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in its report released on 19th January 2012.
ANTaR Victoria supports recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in the Australian Constitution. Further, ANTaR Victoria strongly supports removing the power of States to disqualify people from voting on the basis of race.
The Constitution needs reform and in its current state reflects poorly on non-Indigenous Australia as a whole.
Constitutional recognition is a positive step forward, yet not an end point in the journey towards just relations between the Commonwealth and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
ANTaR Victoria’s vision of justice is full moral, legal and political recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as sovereign peoples with rights to self-determination. ANTaR Victoria will continue to champion the voices of Victorian Aboriginal peoples in this context.
In ANTaR Victoria’s view, the ultimate reflection of full recognition is treaty- and agreement-making. ANTaR Victoria supports the core principle that, in accordance with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the government must gain Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ ‘free, prior and informed consent’ to laws that it makes in relation to them.
The national discussion on constitutional recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in 2012 is an opportunity to generate more and deeper conversations with all Australians about the issues at stake in reshaping the relationship of the Commonwealth with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
ANTaR Victoria will work to generate greater community knowledge of and involvement in redressing Australia’s unfinished business through a campaign in support of constitutional reform in 2012 - 2013.