Preamble drafted by
Marian Sawer (borrowing from Lowitja O’Donoghue of South Australia and former chair
of ATSIC, who presented her version of the preamble at the Constitutional Convention).Preamble drafted by
Marian Sawer (borrowing from Lowitja O’Donoghue of South Australia and former chair
of ATSIC, who presented her version of the preamble at the Constitutional Convention).
PREAMBLE
"We the people of Australia affirm our Constitution as the foundation of our democracy. We dedicate ourselves to a responsible and representative system of government that upholds fundamental rights and freedoms and the rule of law.
We respect and cherish our ancient land and recognise indigenous Australians as its original occupants and custodians. We seek an Australia that will be proud of its diversity, promote the equality of men and women and provide justice and equity for all."
Preamble drafted by
Dr Jocelynne Scutt, Melbourne barrister. It was printed in the Weekend
Australian on 27-28 March 1999.
PREAMBLE
"Together, as Australians under our new Constitution, we;
Together, we pledge to honour our commitment to democracy and to the right of all Australian citizens, women and men, to human dignity, justice, fairness and equality under the law."
Preamble poem by 26 year old Melbourne solicitor, Tahnee Woolf.
We, the Australian people, come together in true sovereignty
United by our strong belief in freedom and equality
Our ancient land has felt the loving touch of many hands
Of timeless native guardians, and folk from far off lands
Like our vast and varied landscape, our diversity defines us
And tolerance adds strength to the democracy that binds us
Under rule of law, our hearts beat as a single federation
Our future's bound not by the sea, but our imagination
With pride we stride ahead to make our global contribution
And, hand in hand, commit ourselves to this, our Constitution.
The FOURTH by Associate Professor Greta Bird from Southern Cross University
is described as "a very honest preamble" based on a historical perspective
Taken by force, "their dispossession underwrote the development of the nation". They suffered massacre, rapes, abductions. Acts designed to displace them from their land and culture and denied citizenship. A system of representative government based on ruling elites was established. This was a hierarchical and patriarchal system which perpetuated domination by rich white males and the government became hostage to the power of multinational corporations which threatened to withdraw capital.
Women were denied an equal wage, were sexually harassed in the workplace, raped and assaulted in the home. In spite of international treaties, and legislation designed to implement them, inequality on grounds of race, sex, class and sexual preference flourishes.
In recognition of this history and desiring to heal the nation, we the people, establish a union under the following constitution.
Note: the quote in Line 1 is taken from the High Court ruling on Mabo.
Other suggested preambles submitted to the Constitutional Centenary Foundation’s Preamble Quest.
By Ms Kirstie Gill, aged 14, of Brisbane:
"We, the people of Australia, from the six states and two territories, form one indissoluble democratic nation under Almighty God. We acknowledge that the Commonwealth has evolved into an independent and sovereign nation under the Crown and recognise our federal system as a representative democracy with responsible government.
We recognise the prior ownership of our country by our indigenous people and that they are entitled to rights by virtue of their status. We will continue to nourish and conserve our unique environment for future generations and to practise sustainable development.
It is our responsibility to uphold the rule of law and to defend our nation. We affirm the rule of law and the equality of all before it. We are united by our rights, rejecting discrimination on the grounds of race, sex or religion. We are multi-cultural, sharing a common language and tolerating and respecting our differences.
We, the people of Australia, have agreed to reconstitute our system of government as a republic. Asserting our sovereignty, we commit ourselves to this Constitution."
By Ms Mary Burgess, Davistown NSW
"We, the people of Australia have agreed to reconstitute our system of Government as a republic.
We acknowledge the uniqueness of our land and the special place of its indigenous people.
We recognise that we are a blend of many cultures.
We ask the blessing of Almighty God that we may live in harmony with our land and its people - that we may respect our country’s law and achieve justice for all."
By Ms Kathy Mallaburn, Sandy Bay, Tasmania
"May we, the people of Australia, vow to honour the values and traditions that unite us as a nation.
May we strive to uphold that democracy which protects the precepts of Justice, Freedom and Truth, irrespective of colour, race or creed, in the name of all mankind."
These versions were penned by women members of the CCF panel:
By Dr Margaret Scott, a writer from Tasmania
"We the people of Australia, having formerly agreed to unite in one indissoluble Federal Commonwealth under God, the Crown of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and the Constitution thereby established are now resolved to reconstitute our independent, democratic and sovereign nation as a republic. We pledge ourselves to maintain our federal system of representative democracy and responsible government in accordance with this Constitution.
We recognise that Australia and her islands were occupied by Aboriginal peoples at the time of white settlement and seek a just reconciliation between the dispossessed and Australia’s more recent settlers. We accept the need to respect the unique and ancient land we inhabit so that the physical and spiritual benefits it bestows on us remain unimpaired for future generations.
United by pride in our diversity, we acclaim this land as a home in which all who share it enjoy equality under the law regardless of race, colour, gender or creed so that the rights of each individual are upheld in every state and territory throughout the Commonwealth, the liberty and welfare of every citizen preserved and the dignity of every human being held sacred.
On this first day of a new millennium, 1 January 2001, we assert our sovereignty by committing ourselves to this Constitution and the principles it enshrines."
By lawyer, Miss Elizabeth Bruce:
"We people of Australia, who, relying on the blessing of God, agreed to unite in one indissoluble Federal Commonwealth under the Crown of the United Kingdom and Ireland, which has since become an independent nation, now agree to reconstitute the Commonwealth of Australia as a republic.
We acknowledge the unique heritage of the indigenous Australians who first inhabited this land, and we respect their culture.
We appreciate the contribution made to Australia by its indigenous peoples and by all those who have since come to this land. We are united in our diversity in a land where the equality of all is honoured and freedom is cherished.
We enact and commit ourselves to this Constitution."
Other members of the CCF panel were: Ian McNamara, host of Australia All Over on ABC Radio, David Marr journalist, Jason Yat-Sen Li lawyer, Nova Peris-Kneebone athlete (the two last mentioned attended the Constitutional Convention) and Bruce Woodley, songwriter and member of The Seekers.
By
Mrs EA Fitzgerald, Nedlands WA
The people of Australia, who come from many diverse cultures, have agreed to unite and establish an independent, democratic and sovereign Christian nation, but accept the right of freedom in religious beliefs, in the name of the Almighty God. We recognise our federal system of representation and will, in future, ascertain that women are authorised to represent themselves in equal numbers to that of men in our government system with due observance to the needs of working women’s children throughout the nation; and with due observance of Prudence, Justice and Charity, so that the dignity and freedom of the individual may be assured and true social order allowed, and the equality of all people before the law. We recognise the injustices of our past to the Indigenous people, their children and those children from overseas when taken from their parents and brought out to Australia as orphans. We respect our unique land and the environment and will do all within our means to preserve our special fauna and flora, our shoreline and our coastal reefs. We, the people of Australia, have agreed to re-constitute our system of Government as a republic, asserting our sovereignty, we do hereby commit ourselves to the Constitution.
By
Ms Marjorie Lois Green, Dubbo NSW
AUSTRALIA’S PAST AND FUTURE
The past must be a commitment for the future.
Australia, a wide continent encircled by seas,
with rugged cliffs and white shelly beaches.
Animals on grassy plains, in forests and caves -
the creation of the Master of all things.
Eons ago, Aborigines inhabited this vast land.
They ate yams and honey and speared fish,
wasting nothing; just regenerating the growth,
God being the Giver of all nourishment.
Centuries on, white brothers and sisters came.
Some shackled, labouring for food and warmth,
tilling the ground, grazing sheep for wealth:
God giving man stone and wood for the hearth.
Decades later, many wars sacrificed our men.
Those brave and healthy - thousands known,
who should have lovingly fathered our nation,
unto whom God once blew sustenance and life.
And many distraught mothers - black and white -
had their beloved children taken from them
by governments, by loss of moral fibre;
but God had given all free will to righten.
Yet our cities expanded. Businesses prospered
with a growing population now multi-cultured,
wisened not to past unrighteousness and greed,
forgetting the God-given intelligence to heed.
Still our want for money and power prevailed
without all good principles being paramount,
without seeing our existence as miraculous,
and that God can take our lives day or night.
And against nature, scientists chose to work:
on mining uranium, on destructive weapons,
on cloning, on damaging God’s perfect rhythm -
His true balance to nature’s life or death.
While lives were shattered through neglect,
while the air we breathed remained polluted,
outer space rotated tonnes of scientific junk:
man’s interference tampering with God’s plan.
Yet our quality food had been untainted fish,
pure-running streams, rivers, delicious rain.
Earth is dependent on human appreciation,
and keeping pure God’s oceans, sky and land.
When the Year 2000 has excitedly swept by,
when the world’s best athletes have won gold,
governments’ unjust power must be restrained,
for God works in many mysterious ways.
In this great south land of the Holy Spirit,
where wisdom demands compassion to flow,
Australia’s new beginning will be humaneness,
if God’s worthy Commandments be the guide.
By
Ms Soraya Hammond, Year 9, St Rita’s College, Clayfield, Brisbane QLD
(this preamble is illustrated by a spray of golden wattle)
We, the people of Australia, from here and forever peacefully share and protect this country with all our people. We believe in a multicultural society including Australia’s original inhabitants, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Australia is an independent Commonwealth of states and territories, a democratic and sovereign nation under the Crown. We believe in our Federal system of representative democracy and responsible government. We seek and believe in equality for all, as well as freedom in our society. We believe in people’s personal freedoms including freedom of speech, religion, association and trial by a judge under the Rule of Law. We seek to ensure the conservation of our environment and all living things within it and respect its uniqueness. We, the people of Australia, asserting our sovereignty under Almighty God, hereby commit ourselves to this constitution.
By
Miss Del Mutton, Cronulla NSW
We, the People of the Republic of Australia declare that Democracy will be strengthened by legislating for one vote one value everywhere and that all Members of the Senate from each State and Territories in the Federal Republic of Australia will be elected on the same date as the House of Representatives.
We declare that all People will be treated equally according to Law regardless of gender, country of origin, race, age or sexual preference.
We declare that the Senate will have no power to block supply to a duly elected House of Representatives by refusing to pass the Supply and Appropriation Bills without the concurrence of a two third majority of both Houses sitting together.
We declare that a President will have no power to dismiss a duly elected Prime Minister or Declare War without a vote being taken by both Houses of Parliament and a two third majority achieved, after the President has presented his case to them.
We declare that the Aborigines of Australia and the Torres Strait Island People will be treated with respect and given the same health, education and vocational opportunities as all Australians.
We declare that our legal system will be reformed to conform with International Human Rights so that those guilty of taking life will be adequately punished by a reasonable stay in gaol but the unfortunates of society such as the drug addicts, alcoholics and homeless will be placed on a secure farm, in the care of kind hearted people where they can learn to regain their self respect.
By
Ms Margaret Clark, Lane Cove NSW
We, the people of Australia, men and women of mutual goodwill, wish to acknowledge our shared responsibility for the past and for the future of this land and all its people. United by this responsibility, we declare our intention to reconstitute our nation’s system of government as a democratic republic.
In so doing, we embark upon a fourth phase in the history of our land.
The first, the period of occupancy and custodianship of the land by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, whose relationship with the land was profoundly spiritual and for whom the land defined their very being.
The second, the period of British settlement, was a time compounded of the pain of invasion and dispossession for the Indigenous peoples; and of deprivation and yearning for the early settlers - convicts and overseers alike. From the womb of such sufferings did our young nation emerge.
The third phase began one hundred years ago, when the Federal Commonwealth of Australia was formed under the Crown of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. It has been a time of peace and wars, of prosperity and poverty, of gain and loss, of despair and hope. In this time, Australia has evolved into an independent, democratic and sovereign nation under the Crown; our six States and two Territories conjoined into one federal democracy. Throughout it all, the democratic freedoms and stability of government of our British heritage have allowed us to offer refuge to many people from diverse lands, to absorb great change, to call each other to account for injustice, to speak openly to each other about our past and to deliberate about our future.
Through these deliberations has come consensus that the unity of our people lies in our own hands and that the symbol and representative of that unity must be found from within. We, therefore, choose now to sever all formal ties with the British Crown.
This new era of our nationhood will be forged in light of a clear-sighted scrutiny of our people’s history, drawing from it all the elements that have contributed to civility, peace and justice; and eradicating all those which have contributed to injustice and error. We are a people drawn from many peoples and many dreamings. We honour our diversity and our unity. Our pasts are disparate, but our future is one.
We believe that peace and justice, wherein lie the prosperity and happiness of our land and its people, must be founded on Truth, on the freedom and responsibility of our people to speak the Truth and on the right for this Truth to be heard.
Those of us who believe in Almighty God and those of us who believe in the energy of humanity together pledge our commitment and our determination to establish a society wherein peace and justice for all are deeply rooted not only in our laws and in our institutions but also in our people’s hearts and minds.
We, the people of Australia, asserting our sovereignty, commit ourselves to this Constitution.
By
Ms Babette Smith, Potts Point NSW (Babette Smith is a journalist who spoke at
the Women’s Constitutional Convention)
Before the people of Australia was the land
And the land was the Dreaming
And we, the Indigenous people known as the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, came to the land and it possessed us as its ancient power possesses all who live here
And we, the Australians who came after, acknowledge our debt to the first inhabitants for teaching us that we do not, in spirit, own the land but are owned by it and that we share with the Indigenous Australians, a responsibility for its care and conservation, which we hereby pledge ourselves to observe
Together, we declare that Australians are people of many races from around the world, that we celebrate our diversity and welcome all those who are prepared to live in peace and harmony with us, respecting the values of tolerance and equality and a "fair go" for all, without discrimination against any person on the grounds of race, religion, sex or sexual orientation, age or disability
In honouring the tradition of mateship forged by Australians in peace and war, we hold it self-evident that the weak should be nurtured by the strong and the development of our community should strive to balance reward for individual effort with benefit for all
We value achievement in the arts and sciences, in business and in sport and aspire to excellence in all our endeavours be they physical, spiritual, mental or intellectual, scientific or cultural
Recognising the constitutional legacy derived from Great Britain through the successful establishment of a democratic nation in this continent, we recommit ourselves to the principles of universal suffrage based on one vote for each adult citizen and hereby assert that the rule of law and equal civil, legal and political rights and responsibilities are fundamental to Australian society.
And we the citizens of Australia, humbly relying on Almighty God, are united in one indissoluble federal Commonwealth which derives it power an value from our consent to such unity and from these fundamental beliefs that we share.
By
Mrs Shirley Hart, Highett Victoria ("an Australian of nearly seventy-five
years" who was assisted by her granddaughter’s skills on the computer
- a joint effort)
We, the people of Australia, a mosaic of peoples from many lands, cultures and religions, who, by the grace of the Lord, were led to this ancient continent, peopled by Aboriginal races with their own heritage; and , now we the people having formed a nation of seven States with a federal system of representation, agree to reconstitute our system of government as a republic; and, asserting our sovereignty, commit ourselves to this Constitution.
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Last modified: May 11, 2002