Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Northern and Remote Australia) Share this | Hansard source

I am just not sure whether we were conscious of the fact that this motion was coming forward. We no doubt will be supporting it. (Quorum formed) I am pleased to see that this committee is being formed. When I was local government minister in the Howard government, this issue was constantly raised with me. I always used to say to local government: 'I understand the principle. I support it in principle. But do not come to me until you can assure me that there will be no state opposing this constitutional recognition.' When I asked local government to do that, they rightly felt that they could not do that at the time. It has moved on a lot since then.

Senator McEwen interjecting—