Jakarta Globe – AFP, Sep 15, 2014
Sydney. Australian premier Tony Abbott shifted his office to a tent in an isolated Aboriginal community on Monday, keeping a promise made when he came to power despite having just committed troops to the fight against Islamic State.
Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott speaks at a joint news conference with his Malaysian counterpart Najib Razak during an official visit in Putrajaya on Sept. 6, 2014. (Reuters Photo/Olivia Harris) |
Sydney. Australian premier Tony Abbott shifted his office to a tent in an isolated Aboriginal community on Monday, keeping a promise made when he came to power despite having just committed troops to the fight against Islamic State.
Abbott
vowed to spend a week each year in a remote indigenous location when he was
sworn in 12 months ago, seeking to be the “prime minister for Aboriginal
affairs”.
He made
good on his commitment by moving the hub of government to a tent compound on
the outskirts of Nhulunbuy on the northern tip of Australia, nearly 1,000
kilometers east of Darwin.
Despite the
remote location, he said he would stay in close contact with Canberra and had
access to secure communications to do so.
“Obviously,
if there are dramatic new developments I can move if needs be,” he said during
a round of morning radio and television interviews, a day after committing 600
troops to a multinational strike force against Islamic State militants in Iraq
and Syria.
The
decision to join the anti-IS campaign came just days after Canberra lifted its
terror alert level to “high” on growing concern about Australian jihadists
returning from fighting in Iraq and Syria.
Aborigines,
who number about 500,000 of a total population of 23 million, are the most
disadvantaged Australians, suffering disproportionate levels of disease,
imprisonment and social problems as well as lower educational attainment,
employment and life expectancy.
They are
believed to have numbered around one million at the time of British settlement
two centuries ago.
‘Strangers
in their own country’
Abbott, who
used to volunteer in indigenous communities before becoming prime minister,
said he wanted to give Aborigines his full attention “to gain a better
understanding of the needs of people living and working in those areas”.
“I am very
serious, the government is very serious, both sides of politics are very
serious about an indigenous recognition referendum,” he said.
Australian
lawmakers formally recognized indigenous peoples as the country’s first
inhabitants last year, five years after an historic apology to Aborigines for
past wrongs.
There are
now plans for a referendum to recognize Aboriginal people, and their rights, in
the constitution.
“I think
we’re all in favor of doing the right thing by Aboriginal people and the point
I make is that the right constitutional change will complete our constitution
rather than change it as such,” Abbott said.
“The
important thing now is to set a timetable for this… It’s more important that we
get it right than we rush it, because the last thing anyone ought to want is to
put a proposal of this nature to the people and have it fail.”
He added
that part of his task this week was “to try to build a consensus for change;
change that does help lift Aboriginal people, that does help to ensure that
never again do the first Australians feel like strangers in their own country”.
Agence France-Presse
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