"And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons."
[Genesis 3:7]

An illegitimate regime with an illegitimate constitution is trying to decorate itself, to present itself as if it was a legitimate guardian of the original people of this continent. They never asked the real people who live in this continent, new or old, whether we wanted to have them and their constitution at all to begin with.

No cover for you, bastards, we can see your nakedness behind all your presentations.

What a mealy-mouthed pile of platitudes.

The Constitution is not meant to be a "living document", so it is deliberately hard to change.

A screw up here is a screw up that will affect generations.

Kudos ShadowMinister- as you said the Constitution is not meant to be a living document.

I wish people would stop living in the past.
Most of what happened more than two hundred years ago is of little importance now.
Our legal system was established when the first settlers arrived.
Laws could not apply to anything before then.
Laws can never really be retrospective.

In the animal kingdom there are many groups which 'establish' their territory.
They patrol regularly, and actively defend that territory against invaders.
This can involve physical conflict with an intruder.
Alternatively, some animals simply occupy and use a vacant area.
They are ready to move on if a 'superior' force arrives.

This country was occupied by many native groups?
Did they (collectively?) define the boundaries of this land?
Did they let bordering countries know?
Did they actively patrol and protect those boundaries?
No?
There seems to be no proof that anything like that happened?
They exercised no control over the land as a whole.

This means they didn't 'own' the land in the sense we would define ownership.
They merely occupied small areas of it.
So of course the early settlers decided to move in.
There was plenty of room.
And that was, and still is, the way of the world.

We must live life as it is now.
We must make decisions based on what is happening now.
Not on what our ancestors did more than two hundred years ago.
I wouldn't like to eat two hundred year old egg on toast!

Hi IF,

You take a typical conservative view of past events, when they are uncomfortable, simply mitigating and convoluting past history, then applying some alternate rationale to justify the whole sorry episode. What is important is truth telling, learning from past mistakes, and ensuring a better way forward is found.

BTW, genocide by neglect continued well into the 1960's for Aboriginal people, it didn't end 200 years ago as you would have us believe, but its all part of that mitigation you so desire, is it not.

I think that Aboriginals benefited more than they were disadvantaged by British Colonialism. If they don't agree then they can give up the things that British Colonialism brought to Australia. As the progressive group the Eureka Stockaders and their Left Wing/ Proto-Communist- Chartist Principles said we mine it we own it- and we built it we own it. British Australian's built Australia's infrastructure from nothing.