Pressure is mounting on Tony Abbott to convene a meeting to defuse tensions around the campaign for Indigenous recognition in the constitution, as Noel Pearson hardened his opposition to changing the preamble.
The prime minister signalled last month he was preparing to meet black stakeholders and the opposition leader, Bill Shorten, to further the campaign for recognition, but a date is yet to be set.
Pearson, the Cape York leader who sat on the federal government’s expert panel on recognition, has declared his support for a separate document which would stand alongside the constitution.
Other advocates for constitutional recognition have proposed it be inserted into the preamble.
Pearson has advocated the separate document since last year, but on Monday made his most emphatic remarks on the subject at the launch of Uphold and Recognise, an organisation “committed both to upholding the Australian constitution and recognising Indigenous Australians”. Pearson is not a member of the organisation.
Pearson was at the event to launch An Australian Declaration of Independence, a book by constitutional conservatives Damien Freeman and Julian Leeser, the founders of Uphold and Recognise.
“For constitutional conservatives, the constitution is not the place for values, aspirations and rights clauses, which would in their view hand too much power to the judiciary. Clearly there are very important rights the constitution does protect, but I have been largely persuaded by their broader point,” Pearson said.
“The constitution is a rulebook for government; it is the place where important national power relationships are articulated. It is not necessarily the right place for rich symbolism and poetry.”
Pearson still supports removing discriminatory clauses in the constitution and said the relationship between Indigenous people and government should be constitutionally articulated “so that it is just and fair, rather than characterised by exclusion and discrimination as was the case in the past”.
Pearson also supports parliament being procedurally required to consult and consider the advice of an Indigenous body when it makes laws on Indigenous affairs. He has previously suggested to Abbott that the constitution establishes an Indigenous body to oversee legislation, but which would not have veto power.
“For Indigenous Australians, there is a legitimate desire for real constitutional change, to put measures in place to do things in a better way. I was born a non-citizen, not counted as an Australian under the constitution,” he said.
“I grew up seeing discrimination first hand. Constitutional recognition needs to provide some answer to that problem. Many times in these conversations, when conservatives have said no to the idea of constitutional recognition, I have thought, ‘Listen, this is our country too. This is our country too. We deserve to have our interests constitutionally recognised.’ ”
Abbott supports recognition, but there is no agreement on the wording of any potential referendum and a date is yet to be set.
Indigenous leaders who did not want to comment on Pearson’s proposal directly told Guardian Australia a meeting with the prime minister could be the “circuit-breaker” the debate needed, with some feeling the campaign was in danger of stalling.
Recognise, the official movement for Indigenous constitutional recognition which is overseen by Reconciliation Australia, joined the call for a meeting with the prime minister “as a priority”.
“We understand that in order to settle on a referendum model there will be many options canvassed before the parliament finally settles on a referendum bill. We note that any model must be capable of building a very broad coalition of support,” its joint campaign director, Tim Gartrell, said in a statement.
The co-chairman of Reconciliation Australia, Tom Calma, said he had not seen Pearson’s latest proposal but he hoped to have a role in any meeting convened by the prime minister.
“We don’t support any one particular model; we are keen to see recommendations of the expert panel implemented and we wait for the parliament recommendations,” he said.
Pearson indicated his support for a declaration to sit alongside the constitution in his Quarterly Essay last year and said he was “quite taken with the idea”.
“[It would be] akin to the American declaration of independence, something that would be much more handsome, and not a miserly poetry, but something that accompanies and sits alongside the constitution but doesn’t sit along the constitution proper,” he told Radio National.
“If we get into the preamble business we will be absolutely miserable about every word that we might insert at the beginning of our national document, whereas a declaration could be used in the civic life of Australia that could be like our version of Gettysburg address, something every child could recite and our institutions could have something visionary and poetic.”
The prime minister’s office has been contacted for comment about the proposed meeting.
