12.16.01 It was resolved to:

a) note the resolution of the 9th Assembly (2000) minute 00.11.05(d) which called on
the Federal Government to provide constitutional acknowledgement of Indigenous
peoples as the ‘First Peoples’ and for the removal of racist provisions in the
Constitution;

b) welcome the support of Australia’s major political parties for the constitutional
recognition of Australia’s First Peoples and the commitment of the Federal
Government to proceed towards a referendum to acknowledge in the Australian
Constitution the special place of Australia’s First Peoples;

c) welcome the findings of the Expert Panel on Constitutional Recognition of
Indigenous Australians and the key recommendations contained in the report of
January 2012;

d) encourage Uniting Church councils, groups and members to engage with education
campaigns that serve to highlight the importance of constitutional change for all
Australians, reflecting on and sharing our own story of constitutional change as a
positive contribution to the public conversation; and

e) call on all Uniting Church councils, boards, agencies and members to support the
views of the Uniting Aboriginal and Islander Christian Congress (UAICC) on the
proposal for changes which will be determined by the Federal Government and
taken to the Australian people, acknowledging that a less than satisfactory proposal
may not be supported by the UAICC.