How We Got Here—The Reform Debate From 2010 to 2015

This chapter traces the history of the debate on the constitutional position of Indigenous people during the period from Prime Minister Julia Gillard’sGillard, J announcement of the Indigenous constitutional recognition programme in 2010 until the development of the Voice to Parliament concept in 2015. It discusses the 2012 report of the Expert Panel on Constitutional Recognition of Indigenous AustraliansExpert Panel on Constitutional Recognition of Indigenous Australians and the 2015 report of the Joint Select Committee on Recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander PeoplesJoint Select Committee on Recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, noting that each of these was hobbled by the self-imposed constraint that their recommendations had to be capable of being supported by an overwhelming majority of Australians. This approach was unprincipled, in that it subordinated consideration of the entitlements of Indigenous people to that of what was thought—whether accurately or not—to be politically acceptable to voters, rather than recommending the adoption of such reforms that would satisfy the legitimate expectations of Indigenous peoples. The result was that five years were lost without any progress along the road towards recognising Indigenous rightsRightsindigenous.