Recognise constitutional push is on track, says Tony Abbott

Tony Abbott has declared the push for constitutional recognition of indigenous Australians is on track.

Tony Abbott has declared the push for constitutional recognition of indigenous Australians is on track after last week backflipping on his opposition to a series of indigenous conferences to debate the issue.

After visiting the grave of land rights campaigner Eddie Koiki Mabo in the Torres Strait, the Prime Minister announced he would appoint a referendum council within weeks to guide the debate ahead of a series of conferences later in the year.

Mr Abbott last week bowed to pressure from indigenous leaders, including Noel Pearson and Pat Dodson, for a series of publicly funded conferences to find indigenous consensus on the constitutional changes to be put up for referendum.

For months, he had ruled out the indigenous conferences because he feared it would create a “log of claims that is unlikely to ­receive general support’’.

Mr Abbott, who is spending this week in the Torres Strait and northern tip of Cape York, yesterday said he believed progress was being made despite the frustrations of some indigenous leaders.

“Inevitably, because this is a subject about which people feel passionately, there is going to be some people who go off on this path,’’ he said.

“The important thing is that eventually all the paths come ­together.

“I do think that the process is back on track thanks to the discussions that I’ve had with a number of senior indigenous leaders over the last couple of weeks.’’

While not conceding he was wrong to refuse the conferences initially, Mr Abbott said it was critical that indigenous Australians were central to the formation of a model to go to a vote.

“If we were to rush this and come up with something that indigenous people felt had been foisted on them, or rush it and come up with something that was defeated at a referendum — that would be tragic,’’ he said.

Mr Abbott yesterday met with several members of his indigenous advisory council, including chairman Warren Mundine, who was among those championing the conferences.

At the meeting, Mr Mundine was expected to allude to his council’s inability to access detailed records of attendance and academic results of schools in indigenous communities from state and territory governments.

“This is a big problem for us because we want to improve attendance and education but it is hard for us to know what is really going on at the schools,’’ he said.

The Torres Strait Regional Authority will meet with Mr ­Abbott today to discuss the impact of climate change, with increased flooding in low-level islands of the archipelago, and call for more funding for infrastructure.

Mr Abbott’s visit is part of his annual week-long stay in remote indigenous communities, which he promised before the 2013 election would help inform him to become the “prime minister for indigenous affairs’’.

Mr Abbott will be based on Thursday Island for another day before heading to the Aboriginal community of Bamaga, on the tip of the Cape York peninsula.