Don’t lower sights on indigenous recognition: Bill Shorten

Bill Shorten has called for “a concrete proposal” for the wording of constitutional recognition of the First Australians.

Bill Shorten has called for the release of “a concrete proposal” for the wording of constitutional recognition of the First Australians to fill the void that is being exploited to oppose the idea or lower expect­ations.

The Opposition Leader’s declar­ation is a challenge to Tony Abbott, who has been cautious about deciding on a proposal and has urged caution on the referendum to ensure it is passed.

The Prime Minister has repeatedly said it is better to go slowly and “get it right” than rush and see the referendum defeated.

Mr Shorten last night said that “we must end the great Australian silence in our founding document” and must recognise the traditional owners of our continent, in our constitution.

He said he believed this was the view of the “great, generous major­ity of Australians” who agree “the exclusion of the first members of our Australian family from our national birth certificate is a fault line we must mend”.

“Our focus should be on crafting a broad consensus — across the parliament and around the natio­n — for concrete and meaningful change,” Mr Shorten said in delivering the memorial Lionel Bowen speech in Sydney last night. But the Labor leader warned that, for all the good work that has been done so far, “we still lack a concrete proposal to get behind”.

Since the Gillard government established an expert panel and a parliamentary committee has been considering indigenous constitutional recognition, there has been no decision on what should be put in a referendum and only a decision to hold the referendum in 2017 on the 50th anniversary of the successful 1967 referendum.

“We’re still operating in a vacuum, filled every now and again with conflicting views as to the best way forward. In such an envir­onment, it is easy to suggest we adopt the path of least resistance,” Mr Shorten said last night.

He said the void and a risk-averse approach meant it was easy to argue against the proposal and to “lower our sights”. “We could end up advocating a change that offends no one, challenges no one — and inspires no one.

“A change that can be defeated by the most dangerous referendum argument of them all: if you don’t know, vote no. I believe we can do better than this — and we should aim for better,” Mr Shorten said as he warned there would always be a “tiny group” ­opposed to constitutional recognition for the First Australians who would rail against political correctness.

Mr Shorten said the summit of indigenous leaders with Mr ­Abbott next month was a “chance to move together, with new purpose, toward a referendum question on recognition”. “A proposition Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians can ­advocate, own and vote for with pride and a form of words we will put to the people’s vote,” he said.

Mr Shorten said if the Constitu­tion were being drafted now “we would, without any question, acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the trad­itional owners of our continent … in the first sentence on page one.”