Swift response expected to indigenous referendum report

The report on indigenous constitutional recognition will soon be open to full scrutiny, its ­authors have predicted.

The Referendum Council report on indigenous constitutional recognition handed to Malcolm Turnbull yesterday will soon be open to full scrutiny, its ­authors have predicted.

While the Prime Minister’s ­office has not revealed how quickly he will turn the long document over, council co-chair Pat Anderson and her co-authors Megan Davis and Noel Pearson have said they expect a swift ­response.

The report, commissioned in December 2015, includes a clear call for a constitutionally backed indigenous advisory body in parliament, and a “Makarrata commission” responsible for treaties and a truth-telling process.

Writing in The Weekend Australian, the trio says a six-month process of regional indigenous ­talks, leading up to a landmark constitutional convention and declaration at Uluru in May, provided clear evidence that the symbolic or minimalist reform previously preferred by politicians would not succeed because it would produce no real change.

In the final report, they note that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have long sought constitutional recognition, citing Yorta Yorta elder William Cooper’s 1937 letter to King George V, the 1963 Yirrkala bark petitions, the 1972 Larrakia petition and the 1988 Barunga statement.

Since the Uluru Statement there has been push-back from ­elements on both sides of politics saying the findings of two earlier inquiries — the 2010 Expert Panel established by Julia Gillard and the 2014 joint select committee established by Tony Abbott — were adequate.

But The Weekend Australian understands the report makes clear that while it has taken into account responses to both these documents, it is the inclusion for the first time of the views of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and the general public to create the new model that is significant.