Tony Abbott wants a referendum to be held in May 2017 to recognise Indigenous Australians in the constitution, but won't commit to a date until he is confident it will succeed.

"I am prepared to sweat blood on this," the Prime Minister declared at a Recognise dinner at Redfern on Thursday night, saying the cause was "at least as important as all the other causes this government has been prepared to take on".

While he favoured putting the question on the 50th anniversary of the 1967 referendum, Mr Abbott said: "But I do not want it to fail because every Australian would be the loser. It is more important to get this right than to try to rush it through.

Read it all
http://www.theage.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/tony-abbott-vows-to-swe...

I'd much rather see the Mad Monk stop treating Indigenous Australians as second-class citizens, imposing "work for the dole" conditions on them which are different than those imposed on white Australians.   He's a hypocrite of the worst order.   

Yeah provided there is actual work for them.

There are about 3/4 of a million unemployed people in Australia and only about one quarter of a million jobs.

So even if all the jobs are filled there will still be around 500 million people unemployed.

Prospects don't look good.

Yes thank you Brian

Lord Herbert wrote on Dec 16^th, 2014 at 11:03am:


There already is racism in the Constitution Herbert

Lord Herbert wrote on Dec 16^th, 2014 at 12:59pm:


What about the States' flags?

Lord Herbert wrote on Dec 16^th, 2014 at 12:59pm:


You realise how hard it is to get a constitutional amendment, right?

Quote:

For your perusal.

Majority of electors in a majority of states/territories. Plus it has to get an absolute majority of both houses of parliament. Something that's often tried, but very rarely successfully done.

And, nipping your favourite whinge topic in the bud, you won't have any constitutional recognition of muslims because you wont' get your majority of voters in a majority of states, will you? So you rest easy.

Raven wrote on Dec 16^th, 2014 at 1:16pm:


I think you've got it the wrong way round. 51(xxvi) says:
Quote:

and the part about the aboriginal race was repealed in... the 50's IIRC? But at any race, the effect was really to extend the race power to include Aboriginals, whereas previously A. affairs were in the domain of the states.

But your point about s25 is absolutely correct. Although, it is worth noting that any such legislation would be over-turned as inconsistent with the Racial Discrimination Act under s109 CC.

Raven wrote on Dec 16^th, 2014 at 1:16pm:


And he was, of course, quite correct in assuming that a people of a Stone Age culture should not be burdened with the same civic responsibilities as the settlers and immigrants.

He was exempting them from the political and work obligations that were imposed upon the rest of Australia.

Even to this present day, I don't hear too much objection and protest from the Aboriginal Victimhood Industry that indigenous Australians are not required, as everyone else is, to be actively looking for work if they are on the dole, and that they must sign a Mutual Obligation Agreement document as a prerequisite for receiving the dole.

And must attend all job interviews as dictated by their local Centrelink office. Uniquely, as with Strait Islanders, Aborigines are not required to look for work while receiving the dole.

Aborigines whinge about 'racism' only when it doesn't jeopardise the unique privileges they enjoy that are not given to the rest of the Australian population.

Noel Pearson has been criticising this double-stand for years. He wants the aboriginal people to not be privileged with special exemptions and considerations for being native Australians.