Indigenous campaign pushes republicans away

THE leaders of the indigenous recognition campaign have declared they don't want any link with the reignited campaign for a republic.

Tim Gartrell

THE leaders of the indigenous recognition campaign have declared they don't want any link with the reignited campaign for a republic, arguing that aligning themselves with the divisive push to dump the monarchy would hurt their cause.

Tim Gartrell, the campaign director for Recognise, which is seeking to build support for the recognition of Aborigines and Torres Strait islanders in the Constitution, yesterday rejected an offer of assistance from the republican movement and its claim that the issues had a natural link.

"The issues are clearly separate and so are the campaigns," Mr Gartrell told The Weekend Australian. "Constitutional change is notoriously difficult and in order to do what's right and recognise the first Australians we need to continue building the widespread support we are already receiving from both monarchists and republicans, from conservatives and progressives, and all sides of the political and social divide.

"We need the historic levels of consensus that brought home the 1967 referendum."

The Journey to Recognition, a relay from Melbourne to the Northern Territory, was launched two weeks ago to build momentum for indigenous recognition in the Constitution. The change has bipartisan support.

Mr Gartrell's warning to the republican movement not to press its cause in association with indigenous recognition, came as Kerry Jones, former executive director of Australians for Constitutional Monarchy, said the two issues were not linked. "There are plenty of monarchists who support properly recognising the first Australians but remain opposed to a republic," said Ms Jones, who runs the civics education and citizenship awareness body CEFA.

"Every referendum proposal should be judged on its merits."

The Australian revealed yesterday that the Australian Republican Movement wanted to help build momentum for changing the Constitution to acknowledge indigenous Australians as a first step towards a republic.

ARM national director David Morris said the movement had been in talks with the indigenous recognition campaign and believed it could assist.

He said the first step to change the Constitution must be correcting its silence about indigenous Australians. "An essential founding principle of a future Australian republic must be recognition of the first Australians," he said.

Julia Gillard has expressed support for the change while Tony Abbott has said that until Australia acknowledges its Aboriginal heritage the nation will be torn. Coalition frontbencher Malcolm Turnbull was a founding member of ARM and its chairman in the lead-up to the unsuccessful 1999 referendum on the issue. This week he joined Wayne Swan to launch a collection of essays arguing for Australia to become a republic. The Treasurer said he wanted Labor policy to set out a two-stage process towards a republic, beginning with a plebiscite on the best model, followed by another referendum. "We've had a decade of inertia and I think the time has come, and I believe sooner rather than later we have to begin the journey towards a plebiscite," Mr Swan said.