PM, Shorten shun Uluru stop on road to indigenous recognition

PM Malcolm Turnbull and Opposition Leader Bill Shorten will spurn next week’s constitutional convention at Uluru.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Opposition Leader Bill Shorten in Canberra. Picture: Kym Smith.

Malcolm Turnbull and Bill Shorten will spurn next week’s con­stitutional convention at Uluru, preferring to spend their time at big-ticket events in Melbourne to mark the 50th anniversary of the 1967 Aboriginal rights ­referendum.

The Prime Minister and Opposition Leader had been invited to attend the closing ceremony at the three-day convention, which is the culmination of a series of 12 ­nationwide discussions on what Aboriginal and Torres Strait ­Islanders hope for from indigenous constitutional recognition.

At each of those meetings 10 representatives were elected for the Uluru gathering, making it ­indigenous Australia’s biggest formal gathering, particularly significant given there was no indigen­ous representation at the con­ventions that crafted the 1901 Constitution.

It had been hoped the gathering could present the two leaders, under whose bipartisan support the Referendum Council running the process was formed, with a formal “Uluru statement” that would be the equivalent of the Yolngu bark petitions of 1963 or the 1988 Barunga statement given to Bob Hawke. The latter document was the basis on which Mr Hawke, as prime minister, declared there ought to be a treaty “in the life of this parliament” — an ambition on which he was unable to deliver.

However, Mr Turnbull and Mr Shorten have declined to attend, with the Prime Minister instead hosting a lunch at Melbourne’s Crown function centre next Saturday to mark the 50th anniversary, as well as the 25th anniversary of the High Court’s Mabo decision.

Mr Shorten will attend the lunch and both will join the annual “long walk” led by indigenous footballer Michael Long to the MCG where Essendon will play Richmond in the now-traditional “Dreamtime at the G” clash.

While the convention is winding up on Friday, an ­indigenous affairs estimates hearing will be under way in federal parliament involving Labor’s two indigenous senators, Pat Dodson and Malarndirri McCarthy, as well as Indigenous Affairs Minister Nigel Scullion. All the dialogues have discussed perceived inadequacies of federal indigenous ­affairs policy.

The Uluru convention is likely to be fractious, with not even all the official participants advocating a “yes” vote and protesters making their way from the ­Aboriginal tent embassy in Canberra.

Aboriginal rugby league player David Peachey, a former Recognise supporter, posted a video online in recent days calling the campaign “smoke and mirrors” and urging a “no” vote because of “what they want to do with us, through our cultural lore, our language, our song and our dance”.

Recognise joint campaign director Mark Yettica-Paulson said the campaign was “model neutral” and he looked forward to the outcome of the Uluru convention and progress towards a model through the parliamentary process.

The convention is expected to conclude that any further plans for a referendum should include continued indigenous input, not just in the parliament, and that any change to the Constitution should be substantive, not the minimalist “politicians’ model” many participants fear has been settled on.