Submission to amend the Australian constitution to recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples

* In recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, do you agree to an amendment to the Constitution to enable equal rights?

1. The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander tradition of equal rights governance is widely acknowledged; in the Federal Court by Justice John von Doussain with the view he was "not satisfied on the evidence before this Court that the applicants have established on the balance of probabilities that restricted women's knowledge as revealed to Dr Fergie and Professor Saunders was not part of genuine Aboriginal tradition" [Chapman v Luminis Pty Ltd (No 5) (21 August 2001):400]; in ethnographic studies, as with Diane Bell's seminal "Daughters of the Dreaming" (1983); by indigenous peoples themselves, as with the proposition the 'men never used to boss over the women', "We Are Bosses Ourselves" [Fay Gale (ed), 1983]; and through the affirmation of a heritage of matrilineage by indigenous women, as with Professor Larissa Behrendt.

2. The Mabo decision removed terra nullius for men but not for women because the High Court doesn't recognise a women's jurisdiction.

3. Equal rights governance rebadges the Senate a women's legislature with members elected by women and the House of Representatives a men's legislature with members elected by men, each with exactly the same powers to initiate, review, amend, accept or reject legislation enacted with passage through both.

4. A cabinet of equal numbers of women, appointed by a majority of the women's legislature, and men, appointed by a majority of the men's legislature, reconciles the business of the parliament and provides leadership.

5. Sovereignty resides with a council of governors-general comprising equal numbers of senior women and men.

6. The Courts recognise women's and men's jurisdictions.

7. There is no other remedy to reconcile Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples with the Constitution.

8. Equal rights governance offers all Australians a future free from discrimination, since if women and men achieve equality, all communities comprised of women and men achieve equality.

philip mckeon
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