Her comments and others like it are laying the groundwork for Australians to be bullied into approving changes to the Constitution and being branded as racists if they do not do so.

Didn't realise the country has been operating under a racially biased Constitution? Neither did I.

It took the 22 learned members of Prime Minister Julia Gillard's Expert Panel on Constitutional Recognition of Indigenous Australians to point this out in a 300-page report which recommends a referendum be held to change what it says are racial elements in the Constitution.

In the same breath it also wants the Constitution to be rewritten so it recognises the special need for the advancement of indigenous people and for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages to be acknowledged as the original Australian languages.

It also wants a recognition that the continent and islands known as Australia were first occupied by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and for racial discrimination to be prohibited.

Marcia Langton, a professor of Australian indigenous studies at Melbourne University, is a member of this panel. So is Megan Davis, a professor of law and director of the Indigenous Law Centre at the University of NSW.

They have made it clear that if we fail to line up behind their recommendations, then we will be damned in the eyes of the international community.

"The loss (of the referendum) would brand Australians to the world as racists, and self-consciously and deliberately so," wrote Davis and Langton in The Australian.

Mark Leibler, a senior partner at law firm Arnold Bloch Leibler who co-chaired the panel, said that if such a referendum was not passed it would be "a total catastrophe" for Australia.

"Other countries are looking at what's going on over here," he warned.

If there is one certain way of ensuring that any such referendum will be rejected outright by the electorate, then it is to threaten it with the racist tag in an attempt to blackmail it into submission.

To hold a contrary opinion, then, is to be a racist.

As a nation we are extremely conservative when it comes to changing the Constitution. There have been 44 attempts to do so in the 111 years since Federation and only eight have succeeded in gaining the required majority of votes in a majority of states. The mood is the Constitution has served us well and should be left alone.

Many Australians would feel, I think, that there are a raft of laws guaranteeing racial equality in our country, just as there is legislation prohibiting discrimination against people on the grounds of religious belief, gender, sexuality or age.

Aboriginal leader Warren Mundine has seen the danger in playing the race card against the Australian people, saying it sickens him to see these tactics and that to resist constitutional change does not make a person bigoted, racist or ignorant.

Voters in any proposed referendum might also ask why it is seen as necessary to insert a clause recognising the need to secure the advancement of Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal people.

Why is it necessary to single them out for advancement and not Australian citizens of Vietnamese, Cambodian, Sudanese or Italian origin?

The learned members of the Prime Minister's expert panel are also seeking to have inserted into the Constitution a clause which reads: "The Commonwealth, a state or a territory shall not discriminate on the grounds of race, colour or ethnic or national origin. But does not preclude making of laws or measures for the purpose of overcoming disadvantage, ameliorating the effects of past discrimination, or protecting the cultures, languages or heritage of any group."

Those proposing this may find it could come back to haunt them for it would give the judiciary powers to make these laws and measures and lead to a tangle of legal appeals and arguments.

The panel also makes some disturbing recommendations regarding public opinion.

In its report it states that "before the referendum is held, the Government should make sure the public is fully informed. This might need more government money to be spent on educating Australians about it.

"The Government should take action and spend more funds on maintaining the enthusiasm of Australians for constitutional recognition ...

(and) should also educate Australians about the Constitution and the importance of constitutional recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples."

In other words, taxpayers should fund a public relations campaign designed to convince them to vote the way the panel wishes.

In the interests of fairness, the Government would also have to fund a campaign putting the negative case, an expensive, insane scenario.

In the end, the referendum will be rejected because in seeking to exclude racism, it also seeks to promote the special interests of a specific racial group. It's an inconsistency the Australian public will not be slow to appreciate.