Letter to The Editor - Quality of culture easily trumps longevity of tenure

To The Australian        Noel Pearson has compared the "65,000 years of presence" of Aboriginal peoples on this continent with the "250 years of British dominion" ("Ministers present but voice muffled", 28-29/12), evidently believing that this contrast of numbers justifies the campaign for Aboriginal constitutional recognition. He should ask himself which of those passages of time has contributed more to the flourishing Australian nation in which we live today. The answer is that quality of culture easily trumps longevity of tenure. In any case, we cannot return to yesterday and should not try to. The present Australian nation has now lasted long enough to justify its constitutional hold on this land. Pearson purports to "rehearse the main grounds for objection to positive recognition", but ignores many of the most important, such as the need for internal stability, national security and equity for all Australians. Perhaps Paige Taylor could now give us an article of similar length reporting in depth on the whole range of arguments against constitutional recognition and the key persons advocating them.
  Nigel Jackson, Belgrave, Vic