Constitutional Reform Australia’s Constitution has worked well to protect the rights of most Australians, but it has not worked well to protect the rights of Indigenous Australians. Since the Constitution came into force in 1901, it has presided over many discriminatory laws and policies in relation to Indigenous people. The Constitution is a power-sharing compact, but it has created for Indigenous peoples a position of powerlessness. Indigenous constitutional recognition seeks to fix this by recognising the rightful place of the First Peoples in our nation, and putting in place some better constitutional rules to ensure the relationship between Indigenous peoples and the Australian government is fairer and more productive than in the past. Indigenous people have for decades advocated for better consultation and representation in political decisions made by governments about their rights—they have argued for a stronger voice in their affairs. From William Cooper calling for reserved seats in Parliament in 1937, the Yirrkala bark petitions calling for fairer consultation in 1963, and the Barunga Statement calling for a national Indigenous representative body in 1988, Indigenous advocates have for decades been seeking structural reform to enable greater Indigenous empowerment in the political systems governing Indigenous affairs.
Cape York Institute (CYI) believes that constitutional recognition should enable Indigenous empowerment. It should guarantee Indigenous people a voice in political decision-making. We support the recommendations of the Uluru Statement from the Heart and the Referendum Council Report of 2017. We therefore advocate: • a First Nations ‘voice’/representative body, guaranteed in the Constitution, to provide input and advice into laws and policies for Indigenous affairs; • an extra-constitutional Declaration, enacted by all Australian Parliaments, to give effect to symbolic recognition and bring together the three parts of Australia—the Indigenous, the British and the multicultural; • a Makarrata Commission, set up in legislation, to oversee agreement-making.
HOW DOES CYI WORK TOWARDS CONSTITUTIONAL REFORM? PARTICIPATION IN NATIONAL POLICY DEBATE CYI is actively participating in current debates about constitutional recognition, advocating that the details of the model must put in place a new comprehensive and cohesive approach across four themes: 1.
Recognition of Indigenous Australian voices
2.
Empowerment through structural reforms and Indigenous agency
3.
Improving the productivity of investment, and
4.
Closing the Gap on Indigenous disparity.
Legislation would set out the details of the model giving effect to a constitutionally guaranteed First Nations’ Voice. The aspiration is to bring government into a direct conversation with Indigenous communities, rather than being a top-down decisionmaking structure. To achieve these ends, the Voice must be supported by a new empowering partnership, built from the ground-up in every region. It is through such underpinning partnerships that First Nations people can take responsibility for their own lives and futures at every level to close the gap. While COVID-19 restrictions had a significant impact on our schedule of engagements, during January–June we did contribute to public policy debate through: • commencement of a national education campaign on the Uluru Statement from the Heart, which includes establishment of an education website (www.fromtheheart.com.au); and • participation in the Federal Government national voice working group and regional and local working groups.
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