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Excerpt of transcript of the Election 2001 leader's Debate

In the first question the convenor, Australian news personality Ray Martin, is referring to a media conference put together by the reconciliation organisation ANTaR with Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS), Australian Medical Association (AMA) and Aboriginal leader Mick Dodson:

RAY MARTIN: Can I move on? You mentioned something here, Mr Howard, about a year ago, reconciliation was on the national agenda. We've barely heard a word on it from you or Mr Beazley in the last couple of months. What's happened to reconciliation?

JOHN HOWARD: I think quite a lot. I think the fact that the number of indigenous people who are now in apprenticeships and traineeships have quadrupled in the time we've been in Government, the number of indigenous people going to universities has gone up dramatically, the number of indigenous people in professional training has gone up quite significantly, the fact we're spending a lot more money on employment opportunities, on health and education opportunities. I think there is a lot that is happening on the practical reconciliation front.

RAY MARTIN: ACOSS and other top charity organisations today call for at least negotiations on a treaty. Is that going to happen?

JOHN HOWARD: Not while I'm PM. Could I just finish? I think a treaty is divisive. A treaty is something one country makes with another.

RAY MARTIN: How about negotiations, though?

JOHN HOWARD: Once you start negotiating a treaty, you are acknowledging the possibility that you might agree to one. Now, I am not in favour of a treaty. We are one indivisible nation and our obligation is to try to give everybody a decent place in the sun within the broad Australian nation.

RAY MARTIN: Mr Beazley?

KIM BEAZLEY: We are one indivisible nation. I agree with that proposition. We need an agreement. We need to be prepared to sit down with the Aboriginal people and work through an agreement.

RAY MARTIN: Will that be a priority of yours?

KIM BEAZLEY: They've asked - We'll have many priorities, and that will be one of them. They've asked for a discussion with us on these matters. It was implied in those documents of reconciliation that you recollect that we all signed up to. I think that when folk are coming to you in all honesty to try to get together with you, unify the community, you should respond to a desire to see that community unified.

Clip from Sixty Minutes

Further information: election 2001

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