http://www.foxnews.com/js_index.sml?content=/news/international/0318/i_rt_0318_2.sml Fox News Aborigines Not Recognized As First Australians 12.12 a.m. ET (513 GMT) March 18, 1999 CANBERRA — Australia's conservative government has not recognized Aborigines as the country's original custodians in its proposed new preamble to the constitution, according to a newspaper report Thursday. Aborigines had demanded recognition in the preamble of their occupation of Australia before white settlement, arguing it was necessary for racial reconciliation. The Australian newspaper said a draft of the new preamble included references to God and the contribution of Aborigines and immigrants, but it did not identify Aborigines as custodians of Australia before white settlement in 1788. A source close to the government confirmed that the national cabinet had approved a draft preamble, written by Prime Minister John Howard with help from poet Les Murray, and said the newspaper report of its contents was "more or less'' correct. Australians will vote on the proposed preamble during a referendum in November on whether Australia, now a constitutional monarchy, should cut its 210-year-old ties with Britain and become a republic. Proposals to alter the constitution usually fail at referendums, which need the support of a majority of voters nationwide and in at least four of the country's six states. The newspaper said the draft constitutional preamble tried to provide an "inspirational tone'' to the constitution and limit offence to as many groups as possible by recognizing contradictory positions. "The final version of the preamble goes further, and with more text, than expected and places more emphasis on the future than the past,'' the Australian report said. The government planned to publicly release the final version next week, it said. Howard earmarked Aboriginal reconciliation as one of the main aims of his second term of government shortly after the Liberal-National coalition was re-elected on October 3 last year. But he has consistently refused to apologize for past atrocities, like the forced removal of Aboriginal children from their families during a decades-long assimilation policy, saying the government was not responsible for Australia's past. Opposition Labor leader Kim Beazley last week proposed a constitutional preamble which would recognize Aborigines as ''original occupants and custodians.'' Aborigines in Australia date back some 40,000 years. Today, Australia's 386,000 Aborigines are the country's most disadvantaged group, with a life expectancy some 20 years less than the rest of the population of about 18 million people. ------------------------------------------------------- RecOzNet2 has a page @ http://www.green.net.au/recoznet2 To unsubscribe from this list, mail [EMAIL PROTECTED], and in the body of the message, include the words: unsubscribe announce or click here mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20announce This posting is provided to the individual members of this group without permission from the copyright owner for purposes of criticism, comment, scholarship and research under the "fair use" provisions of the Federal copyright laws and it may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner, except for "fair use."
