Newly released papers show why the Howard government refused a referendum that would have changed the constitution's preamble to recognise First Nations peoples.
Indigenous Voice critics have likened it to a 'third chamber' of parliament. It could cost them $50,000In rejecting the Council’s recommendations, Cabinet’s official position was that a national apology would be ‘inappropriate” as it could imply “that present generations are in some way responsible for the actions of earlier generations".
Calls for a referendum to change the preamble to the constitution to recognise Indigenous people as the first peoples of Australia was also rejected, on the basis that “a similar proposal was rejected by the Australian people” in the 1999 referendum. In his executive summary, then minister for immigration and Indigenous affairs, Philip Ruddock, said a treaty would “undermine the concept of a single Australian nation".
The government instead highlighted its commitment to “practical reconciliation” through the form of “a record investment of $2.5 billion in Indigenous-specific programmes".
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