to THE AUSTRALIAN
     Promoters of constitutional recognition of our ‘first nations’ habitually ignore the substantial arguments that have been mounted against this project. This is true of the fourteen signatories to the recent full-page advertisement (1/12). There is not a word about the dangerous impact that any such tampering with the constitution would have on our national unity, stability and security, nor about its implicit separatist drive, nor about its inequitable treatment of other Australians, nor about the questionable nature of the authenticity of all those identifying publicly as Aboriginals, nor about the obvious fact that demands for more and more will follow any acquiescence to the Uluru Statement’s proposals.

     Reassurances offered by some of the signatories are worthless and misleading; and Aboriginal welfare, where there are legitimate grounds for it, can be effected without any need for constitutional change. This is the same sort of misguided idealism that half a century ago turned peaceful and prosperous Rhodesia into the nightmare of Zimbabwe.
   NJ, Belgrave, Vic.