Following the defeat of the referendum on the first element of the statement, polling in November 2023 found public support for a treaty had declined to 33% (37% opposing, 31% undecided), down from 58% support in October 2023. The same poll also found public support for a truth telling comission through a Makarrata commission to be 35% (31% opposed and 34% undecided). Support for a Voice implemented by legislation recorded a 40% approval, with 40% opposed and 20% undecided. However, support for the government consulting with an independent Indigenous representative body (as alluded to in an unsigned letter released after the referendum) received higher support, with 43% supporting the idea, 34% opposed and 23% undecided.[68]
The Uluru Statement from the Heart received significant public suport from individuals, institutions and civil society groups following its release in 2017. The Uluru Dialogue, a group formed from key members of the writers of the statement based in the UNSW Indigenous Law Centre to advocate for the requests of the statement, received support by many members of the public, prominent individuals, and a range of organisations from football clubs, medical and historical associations, through to banks and corporations such as Rio Tinto and Qantas.[69]
In his 2019 induction speech to the Logies Hall of Fame, Journalist Kerry O'Brien voiced his support for the Uluru statement from the heart by calling on the Australian Parliament, during the current term, to "make a genuine effort to understand and support what is embodied in the Uluru Statement From the Heart". He added "the Uluru statement represents no threat to a single individual in any corner of this country, and certainly no threat to the integrity of Parliament. And if you're told that, don't you believe it. On the contrary, it will add much to the integrity of our nation."[70]
The Convention also drew upon work done over the past few years by the Expert Panel on Constitutional Recognition of Indigenous Australians and the Joint Select Committee on Constitutional Recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples. There has been some distancing from the Recognise campaign, an earlier government-funded initiative to broaden the appeal forinserting a statement of recognition in the Constitution.
... is an important and long overdue expression of what Aboriginal people want from constitutional reform. It is a welcome, but very different perspective to earlier processes. The formidable challenge now is to work from this statement to reach a set of changes to the constitution that can win support from the community at large and across the political divide.
To assist with identification of the document, the document I am seeking is referred to on p. 16 of the Final Report of the Referendum Council. Extracts from the document I am seeking are included in shaded grey boxes on pp.16 to 32 of the Final Report.
Page 16 of the Report includes the following note which confirms that the shaded sections of text are extracts from the Uluru Statement from the Heart.
A Guardian article from March 2023 further cites George Williams and others explaining their support for the proposed text and noting that Parliament will be able to legislate to deal with any problems:
False. The Uluru Statement from the Heart is a one-page document, as confirmed by its authors. Papers released under FOI contain the statement, but also include 25 pages of background information, including minutes of meetings held with Indigenous communities, which are not part of the Uluru Statement from the Heart.
The National Indigenous Australians Agency (NIAA) has confirmed that the Uluru Statement from the Heart is a one-page document, rebutting claims by Sky News political commentator Peta Credlin that it is 26-pages long and contains "hidden" policies.
Beyond the Our Story section, most of the remainder of the 26-pages are drawn from a set of guiding principles and reform priorities, which were published in the Referendum Council report and subsequently referenced in parliament and reported by the media.
The Uluru Statement from the Heart is as follows. Listen to an audio of the statement here.This external link will open in a new windowThis external link will open in a new windowThis external link will open in a new windowThis external link will open in a new windowThis external link will open in a new windowThis external link will open in a new windowThis external link will open in a new windowThis external link will open in a new windowThis external link will open in a new windowThis external link will open in a new windowThis external link will open in a new window
Coming from all points of the southern sky, over 250 Delegates gathered at the 2017 First Nations National Constitutional Convention and today made a historic statement from the heart in hopes of improving the lives of future generations.
First Nations National Constitutional Convention & Central Land Council (Australia), issuing body. 2017, Uluru : statement from the heart Central Land Council Library, [Alice Springs, Northern Territory] viewed 7 January 2024 -484035616
Following on from the previous point, TUSH seeks to project all current social problems that exist within indigenous communities onto how they were treated by Europeans historically. This means that aboriginal people are merely victims of previous injustices. As the statement says:
The Statement has gained broad support from major commercial interests, such as the prominent mining companies BHP and Rio Tinto, who released a joint statement in 2019 endorsing the statement. Rio Tinto's managing director Joanne Farrell stated that 'national conversations around constitutional reform must continue as a priority for our country' (Australian Associated Press, 2019).
In addition to these peak bodies, leading Australian constitutional lawyer and Dean of Law at the University of NSW Professor George Williams observed that the Statement 'is an important and long overdue expression of what Aboriginal people want from constitutional reform. It is a welcome, but very different perspective to earlier processes. The formidable challenge now is to work from this statement to reach a set of changes to the constitution that can win support from the community at large and across the political divide' (Williams, 2017).
Create a text (spoken or written) in a variety of English spoken by, for example, Italian speakers or Sinhalese speakers or Vietnamese speakers or Chinese speakers or African speakers etc. Students can choose from a wide range of domains (for example, food, travel, festival etc.) and text types or genre (advertisement, a poem, a short story, an interview, travel guide or information brochure etc.) to create the texts. Their texts must be accompanied by:
There is strong and powerful Aboriginal Law in this Place. There are important songs and stories that we hear from our elders, and we must protect and support this important Law. There are sacred things here, and this sacred Law is very important. It was given to us by our grandfathers and grandmothers, our fathers and mothers, to hold onto in our heads and in our hearts
At first glance, this might appear surprising. However, there are a number of reasons why those framing the referendum question have chosen to adopt this approach. This includes because any number of minor objections to the legislation might result in a referendum outcome which does not faithfully reflect the will of the people as to the principle. Equally, the level of detail required in the ancillary legislation cannot sensibly be contained within the Constitution. This legislation may be amended from time to time by Parliament as necessary, as often occurs with many other pieces of legislation. This process of refinement is important to ensure that any Voice would remain flexible, appropriate and responsive to its context. If such legislation were contained within the body of the Constitution itself, each instance of such amendment would trigger further (impractical and unnecessary) referenda.
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