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Campaign to change the constitution

9:30pm Thursday, 27th October 2011  

Adelaide Anglicans have set up an official campaign to delete two parts of the Australian constitution that discriminate against Aborigines. The Adelaide Synod (church parliament) also voted last week to support recognition of Aboriginal peoples as the first people in the constitution.

The new campaign has been launched as an Expert Panel on constitutional recognition of Indigenous Australians, set up by the Federal Government nears its deadline. It is expected to report in December this year.

Adelaide Archbishop Dr Jeffrey Driver told the Advertiser newspaper it was "surprising and shocking" that the Constitution still recognised the differing treatment of people on the basis of race. "Many people would be surprised to know that not all citizens are treated equally under the Constitution," he said.

Section 51 of the Constitution gives the government a ”race power”. AnglicareSA, the church welfare agency which is leading the “count me in” campaign, believes this power should be removed so that a government cannot treat races differently.

Anglicare also advocates for the deletion of section 25, which allows people of a particular race to be disqualified from State elections, which means they would not be counted in determining the number of seats that state is entitled to in the Federal House of Representatives.

“I pointed out that Last week three indigenous clergy were ordained in the NT and most probably no-one in the meeting had heard about it” says Phil Zamaglias, Remote and Indigenous Ministries Manager for the Bible Society, making the point that mainstream churches need to work harder at supporting Aboriginal Christians. “I urged the synod to take a leading role in demonstrating the reconciliation of the gospel by leading the charge in treating indigenous people with love and compassion as equals in Christ.”

Anglicare’s “count me in” campaign can be found at  http://www.anglicare-sa.org.au/countmeinsa/