Recognition show ‘back on the rails’

Tony Abbott and Aboriginal leaders have struck a deal for indigenous conventions on recognition.

Tony Abbott and Aboriginal leaders have struck a deal for indigenous-only conventions on consti­tutional recognition, after the “rumble we had to have” to get the process back on track.

Amid concern that a rift over the convention process could sap momentum for the watershed reform, a meeting of the Prime Minister and indigenous leaders yesterday reached consensus on the framework for consultation.

Under the agreement, a parallel process of indigenous and “mainstream” conventions will be held nationwide, with leaders still hope­ful the process will culminate in Uluru ahead of a vote in 2017.

More than $10 million is expected to be allocated to the convention process, which will run under a new referendum council soon to be announced.

Aboriginal leaders Patrick Dodson, Noel Pearson, Kirstie Parker and Megan Davis welcomed Mr Abbott’s concession on indigenous consultation, calling it a win for the recognition push.

“It is the rumble we had to have to get the ground rules right, to get the understanding clear, but now we are very positive that we have got this show back on the rails,” Mr Pearson said.

Ms Parker, the co-chairwoman of the National Congress of Australia’s First Peoples, said the agreement was a “win” for all Australians that she was confident would build consensus. “The people that this referendum is about will have a genuine say in what goes forward,” she said.

“We are optimistic and we will do whatever we can to ensure that that process is meaningful and we arrive at a meaningful result.”

While welcoming the “clarity” arising from yesterday’s agreement, Professor Dodson lamented a lack of community leadership on the issue and called for corporate Australia, churches and unions to champion the reform. “I would like to see far greater leadership by other eminent leaders in the ­nation, not just political leaders, because it is about the nation, and about the future of our country and other leaders in the nation ought to be standing up and encouraging the politicians to be less timid,” he said.

He said it would be “very nice” for Seven West Media chief Kerry Stokes and Rupert Murdoch, co-executive chairman of News Corp, which owns The Australian, to also promote the change.

Ahead of the meeting, Mr Abbott said the process to determine a referendum question needed to be inclusive.

“What we want to do is to have a unified process which certainly will involve indigenous people talking and it will involve the wider community talking.

“What I want to see is not some kind of ‘them and us’ process but a ‘we the people’ process.”

He said he hoped to see a national consensus on a question towards the middle of next year.

Leaders had called for indigenous conferences to be held ahead of mainstream meetings, but Mr Abbott had raised concerns this could result in a “log of claims” that would not win public support.

However, Mr Pearson said the conventions would consider the models already outlined in the expert panel report of 2011, and a parliamentary inquiry, with “no additional agenda”.