Australia must modernise its ''horse and buggy era'' constitution to enshrine Aboriginal land rights, customary law and social equality, Australian of the Year Mick Dodson says.
''We need a comprehensive review of it. It was made by bearded white men more than a hundred years ago, and it's out of date,'' the Australian National University law professor told a public forum at the Two Fires arts and activism festival yesterday in Braidwood.
Professor Dodson's call comes as the United Nations has formally warned the Rudd Government to show it is making progress to end the suspension of Australia's racial discrimination laws.
The laws were suspended by the Howard government in 2007 to push ahead with the emergency intervention in Aboriginal communities.
The UN's racial discrimination committee wrote to Australia's UN ambassador two weeks ago, after receiving formal complaints from Aboriginal representatives claiming intervention measures had ''allegedly led to serious discrimination''.
The committee has questioned the necessity for the Racial Discrimination Act to be suspended. The act is being redrafted in consultation with Aboriginal communities, and the UN has asked the Rudd Government to provide details of all proposed amendments by the end of July.
During a passionate and incisive speech, Professor Dodson urged the Government to resolve the issue of land rights by committing to draft and introduce a treaty to ''finish the unfinished business'' of national reconciliation.
''We need a treaty that will outline, once and for all, how we're going to share this country. Until we fix that, we are always going to be a divided society.''
He said the apology to the Stolen Generations by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd last year was a joyous and long overdue gesture of inclusion. But it was ''just the corner of the jigsaw if we're talking about a bigger picture''.
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