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Legislative Council - Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2)
2016-05-25 Daily Xml
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Aboriginal Constitutional Recognition

The Hon. K.L. VINCENT (14:43): Thank you, Mr President. How does the minister respond to Aboriginal people who may believe that a treaty is a preferable solution, rather than the Recognise campaign, and how significant a number of people does he believe that is?

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Minister for Employment, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation, Minister for Manufacturing and Innovation, Minister for Automotive Transformation, Minister for Science and Information Economy) (14:44): I thank the honourable member for her question. It is a very good question. Like any sort of views about any sort of topics, there are no uniform views amongst the whole of a particular community. I think striving for a treaty or for steps beyond recognition is a reasonable and genuine ambition of many people, but I do not think it is mutually exclusive. I do not think to end up at a treaty means you cannot have recognition of our First Peoples in our constitution. I see that as certainly maybe a step along the way, but I do not agree with the proposition that it is a treaty or nothing. I think they are not at all mutually exclusive.

In my engagement with Aboriginal people and Aboriginal communities, I found overwhelming support for recognition throughout South Australia. I know there have been something like I think about eight opinion polls that have gauged general support and support amongst Indigenous Australia for constitutional recognition. It has consistently run at about 85 per cent support. So, although I agree that it is not one homogenous view about exactly what the words might be or whether this is the exact right way or only way to go, I firmly believe that this does not exclude taking other steps later on. I support the overwhelming majority of Indigenous Australians who support constitutional recognition.

The PRESIDENT: Supplementary, the Hon. Ms Franks.

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