Cory Bernardi Recognise rejection threatens bipartisan consensus

Cory Bernardi has pledged to fight indigenous recognition in the Constitution, saying the movement is ‘hopelessly dysfunctional’.

Liberal senator Cory Bernardi has pledged to fight against indigenous recognition in the Constitution, arguing the movement is “hopelessly dysfunctional” and has failed to make the case for change.

His entry into the debate threatens a longstanding bipartisan consensus and comes as indigenous leaders argue the merits of competing models of recognition, and as a parliamentary committee prepares to report on the next steps for a referendum in 2017.

The Australian Monarchist League yesterday backed the South Australian senator’s call for a no campaign to be funded equally as any campaign for change.

Supporters of constitutional recognition urged the senator to speak to his indigenous constituents and reconsider his position.

With no clarity on the most likely model to be taken to a referendum, Senator Bernardi said the “hopelessly dysfunctional” campaign for change had failed to gain a consensus for amending the country’s founding document and was “doomed to fail”.

“There is a well-funded propaganda campaign to convince ­people they need to support something, and no one knows exactly what it is,” Senator Bernardi said. “It has been going on for years and they still can’t agree.”

Describing the Recognise campaign as a “fifth-order issue at best” that was not being discussed by the broader Australian public or the Coalition, the senator said he was prepared to spearhead a no campaign against changing the country’s founding document.

A poll this week showed 75 per cent of Australians would support recognising Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders in the ­Constitution.

Senator Bernardi also rejected suggestions he would join conservatives in supporting the model being proposed by Cape York leader Noel Pearson for a constituted indigenous body.

Mr Pearson met Aboriginal leaders in Broome this week to push his proposal, which is aimed at quelling a no campaign against constitutional change.

Australian Monarchist League national chairman Philip Benwell said his organisation supported the call for a no campaign, regardless of the model chosen.

He also said the AML did not support Mr Pearson’s proposal.

“As it stands, we are opposed to the current proposals. We don’t see it (Pearson’s plan) as a compromise. We feel that it is going to complicate matters further and we don’t support it.”

NSW Liberal senator Arthur Sinodinos rejected Senator Bernardi’s view, saying the referendum was “about bringing Australians together”.

“This has … to be the moment where we draw a line under the last couple of hundred years and appropriately recognise the Contribution that indigenous Australians have made to this country,” Senator Sinodinos said.

Greens senator Rachel Siewert, who is on the committee examining the best way forward for the referendum, said supporters would be dismayed by the remarks. “(Senator Bernardi) may misunderstand what is trying to be achieved in that constitutional recognition will help finish our Constitution, rather than cause further divide,” she said.