Promise check: Publish a draft amendment for constitutional recognition of Aboriginal people within 12 months

Updated

Before the election Tony Abbott pledged to be "a prime minister for Aboriginal affairs."

Recognising Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in the Australian constitution has been one of his most consistent promises.

At the Garma annual cultural festival in Arnhem Land on August 10, 2013, Mr Abbott said: "As far as I am concerned, one of the most important things that any new government could achieve would be the final recognition of Indigenous people in the Australian constitution."

"Indigenous recognition would not be changing our constitution, but completing our constitution, and until this is done our country will not be whole," he said.

"Within 12 months, we will publish a proposal for constitutional recognition and we will establish a bipartisan process to try to bring that about as soon as possible.

"This should be a great unifying moment for our country, a unifying moment perhaps to surpass the 1967 referendum or the national apology.

"Let us hope so. It's more important to get it right than to rush it, but by God, we will have failed if we do not do it, because until we do it, our country will be torn, our country will be incomplete.

"If we do it, if we do it well... then more fully than at any other time in our history, black and white people can march as brothers and sisters arm in arm into a brighter future."

In an earlier speech, Mr Abbott was more specific about the promise: "Within 12 months of taking office, an incoming Coalition government would put forward a draft amendment and establish a bipartisan process to assess its chances of success... We should be prepared to work on it until we get it right because such an amendment is too important to go forward, yet fail."

And in his campaign launch speech on August 25, 2013, he said: "Starting next year, I will work to recognise Indigenous people in the constitution - something that should have been done a century ago that would complete our constitution rather than change it."

Assessing the promise

This promise was broken when one year passed after the swearing in of the Abbott Government, with no draft amendment published.

Here's how the promise tracked:

Topics: abbott-tony, federal-government, liberals, indigenous-aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander, indigenous-policy, government-and-politics, australia

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