BOOK REVIEWS The Forgotten People: Initially the referendum was tentatively scheduled Liberal and Conservative for 2013. Now it is unlikely to occur before Approaches to 2018, and exactly what constitutional changes Recognising Indigenous Australians will be asked to vote on remains to be Peoples seen. Proposed changes range from the practical— Edited by Damien Freeman removing two specific race-based provisions that are and Shireen Morris considered outdated—to the symbolic recognition Melbourne University Press, of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders as the 2016, $29.99, 193 pages First People of Australia, to more substantive ISBN: (Paperback) provision for constitutional protection from racial 9780522869637 discrimination. Adding to the complexity around making a decision on constitutional recognition It’s Our Country: is the reigniting of the treaty movement, a related Indigenous Arguments but separate issue. Treaties are a contract between for Meaningful two sovereign parties2 while constitutions are a set Constitutional of governing principles. Prime Minister Malcom Recognition and Reform Turnbull has therefore accused Opposition Leader Edited by Megan Davis and Bill Shorten of being ‘undisciplined’ for supporting Marcia Langton a treaty, arguing that this could put constitutional Melbourne University Press, recognition at risk.3 2016, $29.99, 197 pages In a way, these two books encapsulate why ISBN: (Paperback) the government is having such trouble making 9780522869934 a decision on constitutional recognition. The books reflect the diversity of opinion between Reviewed by Sara Hudson Indigenous people’s aspirations for meaningful reform (including the push for a treaty or treaties by hese two companion books contain some) and conservatives’ preference for only minor a range of different perspectives on amendments to the Constitution and no treaties. constitutional recognition for Indigenous This disagreement over the extent of change stems Tpeople by Australians from diverse sides of the in part from the pragmatic nature of the Australian political spectrum. Since these books were written, Constitution, which is essentially a rule-book however, constitutional recognition has fallen off written following federation in 1901 to unite the radar. Six years have passed since the Expert the colonies and create the Commonwealth. Any Panel on Constitutional Recognition of Indigenous changes to it—it has long been held—should be Australians was established. But despite a number simple and in keeping with this practical approach. of parliamentary and expert reports, the federal The first book,The Forgotten People, has an government has not committed to a model for interesting array of Liberal and Conservative constitutional change to take to the Australian people contributors including journalist Chris Kenny of in a national referendum. In fact, the government The Australian, constitutional lawyers Greg Craven did not even respond formally to the Expert Panel’s and Anne Twomey, monarchist Lloyd Waddy, final report. Cardinal George Pell, electoral analyst Malcolm A Referendum Council was established in Mackerras, former Governor-General Michael 2015 to provide advice on how to progress to a Jeffery, Lyle Shelton of the Australian Christian referendum on constitutional recognition, but Lobby and politicians Julian Leeser and Tim Wilson. again the government’s ambivalence to reform has The second book,It’s Our Country, is a collection pushed out the timeframe. The Council is now not of essays by some of Australia’s key Aboriginal expected to deliver a report until the 30th of June and Torres Strait Islander thinkers and leaders, this year.1 including Noel Pearson, Nyunggai Warren POLICY • Vol. 33 No. 1 • Autumn 2017 59 BOOK REVIEWS Mundine, Patrick Dodson, Dawn Casey and According to the editors of It’s Our Country, Mick Mansell. The essays highlight the diversity of a key purpose of the book was to highlight ‘the Indigenous opinion on what constitutional reform diverse and often surprising views and approaches might or might not achieve for Indigenous people. of a range of Indigenous public intellectuals The first question that springs to mind on and community leaders’ (p.2) and for people in reading these two books is whether there is any hope Australia to really listen to what Aboriginal and of Australians arriving at some form of agreement Torres Strait Islander people are saying. Megan on constitutional recognition of Indigenous people. Davis, co-editor and contributor, eloquently Noel Pearson, in the foreword to The Forgotten People, describes the tin air of the Australian government appears to think so, arguing that the contributions in her chapter ‘Ships that pass in the night’. Many by various conservative commentators ‘fills him of the other contributors also note the government’s with great pride and immense hope that a broader history of broken promises to Indigenous people consensus among all Australians may yet emerge’ and how successive governments have treated (p. xvi). them like political footballs. The ideological divide I wish I shared Pearson’s optimism that in Indigenous affairs has left Indigenous people conservative Australians might come to embrace the feeling like the ‘meat in the sandwich’ between those need for constitutional recognition of Indigenous on the Right and Left of politics. Australians, but I am afraid that it will not be Broadly speaking, both books deliver on their possible to come to a workable compromise that objectives. The Forgotten People’s collection of will please everyone. essays reveals an empathy and understanding of According to Pearson, the challenge is in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders not always producing a model of constitutional reform that recognised as belonging to conservative Australians. manages to navigate the narrow chasm between Not that I have ever bought into the Left’s the ‘overly ambitious’ Left and the ‘desultory smirking moral superiority to those on the Right minimalism’ of the Right.4 This middle ground when it comes to addressing issues of Indigenous between these two sides is what Pearson calls the discrimination. Both sides of politics are guilty ‘sweet spot’ or ‘radical centre’.5 of whitewashing history to demonise the other Reading the collection of essays in these two and paint themselves in a better light. As George books did not imbue me with confidence that it Williams pointed out in his review of the book in will be possible to find this elusive ‘sweet spot’. For The Australian, ‘Conservative leaders and thinkers a start, both books have very different aims and have not undergone a recent conversion to the widely divergent perspectives on constitutional cause. Instead, from the early years after Federation, recognition for Indigenous people. people from the Right have also pointed out the The Forgotten People seeks to show that injustice of these arrangements, and promoted constitutional recognition of Indigenous Australia change.’6 is not only supported by those on the Left of Aboriginal people were first extended the right politics in Australia, but that there is genuine to vote in 1962 under the Menzies government, goodwill among constitutional conservatives while the successful referendum in 1967—in and classical liberals for achieving Indigenous which over 90% of Australians voted to remove recognition that is practically useful. However, the some discriminatory clauses in the Constitution— contributors to It’s Our Country were specifically was passed when Harold Holt was prime minister. told not to be constrained by what might be The Labor government may have reignited considered ‘achievable’ and ‘what the most the debate about constitutional recognition of conservative and tradition-bound will abide’ (p.3). Indigenous Australians in recent times, but it was They were also asked to avoid being constrained John Howard who first put Indigenous recognition by ‘the ideological minefield of deeply held views on the national political agenda by proposing from both the Left and Right wings of Australian that Australians vote on a new preamble to the political life’ (p.2). Constitution at the 1999 republic referendum. 60 POLICY • Vol. 33 No. 1 • Autumn 2017 BOOK REVIEWS No one reading the essays in It’s Our Country These stringent requirements mean that of the 44 could be under the illusion that Indigenous referenda since 1906 only eight amendments to Australians are a homogenous group with a the Constitution have been made. There were also common position on constitutional reform. Views five occasions where a national majority voted for expressed range from Noel Pearson’s re-imagining change but not a majority in each State, causing the what the first nations peoples might have negotiated proposed amendment to fail.8 if they had been given a seat at the bargaining table The general tone ofThe Forgotten People and his suggestion for an Indigenous Advisory is one of caution, including scepticism about Body, to Nyunggai Warren Mundine’s argument for making any substantive changes to include a treaties with each nation because nobody or group provision for constitutional protection from racial can speak for all Indigenous peoples. discrimination—because this could transfer power At the same time, while the contributors to It’s from the parliament to unelected judges—and the Our Country have differences of opinion, there difficulties in achieving changes to the Constitution is a shared view that real change is necessary and in general.