PM capitalising on black failure: Dodson FORMER Australian of the Year Michael Dodson has pleaded with the Abbott government to stop making indigenous Australians sick by being negative about them. PRIME Minister Tony Abbott moved the indigenous portfolio into his office last year, declaring himself prime minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. But Prof Dodson says to live up to his self-appointed title, Mr Abbott should stop talking negatively and capitalising on the "entertainment of black failure." He says that by making its indigenous focus on education, safe communities and jobs, the Abbott government is actually highlighting indigenous failure. If you were constantly told you were useless, it would make you sick, he said. "Stop the negativity," he told the National Press Club. It's making me sick, too. You're too busy on the entertainment of black failure and that's about it. Prof Dodson said it wasn't only government ministers speaking negatively about indigenous people. It's not just the white folks saying it. Some of our own prominent individuals are joining in like a cheer squad," he said. The professor, and director of ANU's National Centre for Indigenous Studies, fobbed off several questions from journalists after his press club address. But he said he didn't support the three options posed by the parliamentary joint committee on constitutional recognition. A prohibition on racial discrimination should not be included in the constitution - despite two of the committee's recommendations to include it. Prof Dodson wants a referendum to repeal two sections of the constitution - one that enables states to disallow voting on the basis of race, and another that allows the federal government to legislate on the basis of race. That would mean indigenous people weren't mentioned in the constitution at all - the focus of the entire recognise campaign.