Despite Howard and Abbott's efforts to promote a constitutional preamble acknowledging the first peoples of the continent, indigenous leaders have long since rejected the concept as insufficient. As with Louis XVI’s summoning of the Estates-General, the consultation process they advocate would turn up something much more radical than had ever been intended

While the Anglocentric national identity of the pre-1970s era is obviously never coming back, it is essential that the British and European foundations of the Australian achievement are proudly celebrated, acknowledged and understood. Anything less is a lie about our country -- and there are lies aplenty doing the rounds, especially in Canberra

Right-leaning Australians assume equal citizenship and opportunity invite Aborigines to be just another variety of Australians, preserving their own cultures if they choose. In progressive quarters 'First Nations' are a permanently separate category entitled to special rights on the basis of bloodlines alone. Those perspectives make further discord and division inevitable