![abbott thoughtful](https://quadrant.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/abbott-thoughtful.jpg)
A Personal Program of Political Action
The Hon. Tony Abbott was Prime Minister of Australia from 2013 to 2015. This is a slightly edited version of his speech to the CPAC conference at Sydney in August.
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The referendum now before our nation is an absolutely critical moment in our history. Are we going to be a nation of constitutional equality that reflects Bob Hawke’s immortal words that this is a country with no “hierarchy of descent” and with “no privilege of origin”? Or are we going to be a nation where some people have a special Voice based on how long some of their ancestors have been here?
Thank God for Warren Mundine and Jacinta Price: two magnificent Australians who cherish their Aboriginal ancestry and heritage, but who refused to be defined by it. One, a proud Walpiri-Celtic Australian woman; the other a proud Bundjalung Anglo-Celtic Australian man. Just as I am myself an English, Welsh, Dutch Australian who happens to live in what was once Gadigal country, which is now the great city of…
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