The Federal Greens this week sought to give momentum to the Uluru Statement From The Heart’s call for Truth and to begin a formal consultative process on what a national truth telling body should look like.
Marie McInerney writes
The Greens have introduced a Bill to establish a Truth and Justice Commission, in an effort to trigger a national conversation on the right mechanism for truth telling and to bridge the “silence” that Indigenous health leader Pat Anderson says has further hurt Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people following last year’s Voice referendum defeat.
Western Australian Greens Senator Dorinda Cox, a Yamatji Noongar woman, tabled the Truth and Justice Commission Bill 2024 in the Senate on Tuesday, saying “misinformation peddled during the referendum campaign showed the urgent need for truth telling”.
At the Greens’ behest, the Bill was referred today to the Joint Standing Committee on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs, chaired by Labor Senator Jana Stewart, a Mutthi Mutthi and Wamba Wamba woman.
Cox told Croakey the Greens were not “wedded” to the details in the Bill, which was aimed to start the wider, inclusive discussion, through the Senate inquiry, that “bears fruit for everyone”.
Public hearings and the opening of submissions are expected to be scheduled when Parliament resumes in August and for the Committee to report in January 2025, she said.
“As the Australian Greens First Nations portfolio holder, I have heard calls from First Nations people and allies right across our diverse and vibrant country,” Cox told MPs in her second reading speech.
“They are asking for the establishment of formal truth telling processes to record and reconcile our nation’s pre-colonial, past and current stories and history.”
However, nearly a year on from the 14 October referendum, “the Government have been silent on what they are doing in relation to Makarrata or a Truth and Justice Commission”, she said.
Cox has urged Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to announce his support for a national truth telling body and a funding commitment “to start the process” at the 2024 Garma Festival on Yolngu Country in northeast Arnhem Land next month.
Before the 2022 election and, particularly on the night he won office, Albanese committed to implementing “in full” the Uluru Statement, and its calls for Voice, Treaty and Truth, or for a Makarrata – a Yolngu word that expresses the idea of two parties coming together after a struggle and healing the divisions of the past.
“I just hope we can see other politicians, other parties in this country, stand alongside First Nations’ Senators, MPs, activists, and others, and make this a reality,” Cox said. She acknowleded that Voice, Treaty and Truth processes across Australia may be at risk in future given Coalition parties have withdrawn bipartisan support following the referendum.
That’s why it was “important to help Labor actually get this done”, she told Croakey.
Asked to respond to the Greens move, the office of Minister for Indigenous Australians Linda Burney provided a statement to Croakey, saying:
We’re committed to the principles of truth telling and Makarrata.
There are a variety of views on how to move forward and I’ll look at the detail of Senator Cox’s proposal.
It’s important that the next steps bring people together.
After the referendum, we are taking the time to listen and get things right. States and Territories have processes underway.”
Change is urgent
Anderson, an Alyawarre Elder and Uluru Statement From the Heart co-architect, backed the Greens proposal, calling on the Albanese Government not to let Truth and Treaty languish.
“It has been nine months since the referendum and there needs to be forward momentum,” she told media. “Our people are hurting from the silence, and there needs to be leadership.
“Nothing has changed since October 14. Change is needed. Change is urgent.”
Dr Jill Gallagher, CEO of the Victorian Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation and Victoria’s inaugural Treaty Commissioner, also supported the Bill, commending the Greens for “their courageous leadership”.
Gallagher told Croakey that Victoria’s truth telling body, the Yoorrook Justice Commission, “has demonstrated the profound impact of truth telling through compelling testimonies from Aboriginal and non-Indigenous communities”.
“Through their powerful truth telling, Aboriginal Elders and Communities have provided the Victorian Government with an invaluable roadmap that paves the way towards healing for Aboriginal people,” she said.
A national Aboriginal-led truth telling process “is essential to uncovering the truth and pursuing justice for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Communities across the country”.
The Senate inquiry into Missing and Murdered First Nations Women and Children has also heard the importance of truth telling as part of the efforts to prevent and address violence against First Nations women, as Ballardong Noongar journalist Jade Bradford reported at Croakey last week.
Cox said she had consulted informally across the country, “talking to people in communities and seeking their advice in relation to the formation of this Bill”.
She also had more formal discussions with the Yoorrook Justice Commission, which she said is considered the “gold standard” for truth-telling in Australia. Among other issues, she explored its views on the composition of a federal Commission and what powers it required.
But she said there are many different ways in which truth telling can happen, “and we want to hear what communities, what families, what both non-Indigenous people and First Nations people want in this process”, she said, hoping for “a grassroots movement in truth telling”.
Pat Anderson’s comments, Cox said, “also reflect the sentiment in the community that there is a real sense of pain, post Voice referendum, and that they want some sense of hope. And that’s what we hope this Bill will do today.”
Truth and Treaty processes underway
The Greens move came amid significant steps this week towards Treaty and Truth in Queensland and Victoria.
The Victorian Government said the state is on track to begin Treaty negotiations this year, following the opening of the Victorian Treaty Authority’s Treaty Negotiations Database.
Marking the first step towards ‘live’ Treaty negotiation, it will hold information on which parties are involved in Treaty negotiations, including the Victorian Government and the First Peoples Assembly of Victoria, and the status of negotiations.
Alongside Victoria’s Treaty process, the Yoorrook Justice Commission last week concluded its seventh round of public hearings, focused on systemic injustice experienced by First Peoples in Victoria in relation to health, education, housing and economic life.
This week also marked the formal start of Queensland’s three-year Truth telling and Healing Inquiry into the impacts of colonisation on Aboriginal peoples and Torres Strait Islander peoples, which will include examination of records held in archives, libraries, museums, and others held by government and other entities.
It will be led by:
- Joshua Creamer (Chair), a Waanyi and Kalkadoon man with connections to Northwest Queensland, a barrister specialising in native title, human rights and class actions, and Commissioner in the Queensland Law Reform Commission. See this Guardian Australia profile
- Cheryl Buchanan, proud Guwamu woman and founder of the Aboriginal Legal, Medical Services and Childcare Centre in Brisbane, who served as the first Aboriginal Commissioner with Queensland Corrective Services
- Ivan Ingham, a Wiradjuri and Filipino man who was the first Indigenous appointment as Judicial Registrar to the Federal Court of Australia
- Vonda Malone, a Torres Strait Islander woman with connection to Erub (Darnley Island) and Cape York, who is CEO of the Torres Strait Regional Authority and was the first female Mayor of the Torres Shire Council.
However, the ongoing work of these entities, and of Voice, Truth and Treaty processes in other jurisdictions are under threat, with Opposition parties having withdrawn bipartisan support in the wake of the referendum.
Terms of reference
Under the Greens Bill, the Commission would be established as an independent, trauma informed and culturally safe body, empowered to inquire into historic and ongoing injustices against First Peoples in Australia and the impacts of these injustices on them, and to make recommendations to Parliament.
It would be made up of 10 Commissioners, one from each state and territory and two Chief Commissioners, to be appointed by the relevant Attorney General and Indigenous Affairs Minister. A majority must be Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, including the two Chiefs.
It would investigate:
- Historical systemic injustices perpetrated by the Commonwealth government, Commonwealth government bodies and non-government bodies against First Peoples since pre colonial times
- Ongoing systemic injustice perpetrated by the Commonwealth Government, Commonwealth bodies and non-government bodies
- The causes and consequences of historical injustice, including a historical analysis of the impact of colonisation and an evaluation of the contemporary relationship between First Peoples and the Commonwealth Government and the impact of contemporary policies, practices, conduct and laws on First Peoples
- How historical injustice can be effectively and fairly acknowledged and redressed in a culturally appropriate way
- How ongoing injustice can be addressed or redressed, including recommended reform to existing institutions, law, policy and practice and considering how the Commonwealth Government can be held accountable for addressing these injustices and preventing future injustice
- How best to raise awareness and increase public understanding of the history and experiences of First Peoples before and since the start of colonisation.
The Commission would be able, at any time it saw fit, to submit an interim report to both Houses of Parliament, with a final report to be lodged within four years of starting its work.
Cox this week appealed to MPs to show leadership, saying declarations, bark petitions and many other generous offerings given by First Nations people all remain largely unfulfilled.
“These important processes of the Truth and Justice Commission will allow us to formally record, teach and reinforce that we have strong and proud Indigenous peoples who were the first chapter of our nation’s story,” she told the Senate, saying that Australia is “stranded as a nation, suspended in time – waiting for action”.
“Through the yearning of wanting peace and harmony that form the pillars of our values as a nation, this story continues to cast doubt over our true ‘discovery’ and therefore shapes Australian history taught in our schools, on show in our museums and reinforced through our media and democracy,” she said.
Non-Indigenous colleague Senator David Shoebridge said truth telling would necessarily lead “a hard dialogue, but I think it’s one that the Australian people are ready to have like never before”.
“Millions and millions of Australians were shattered by the decision on the referendum and have been asking this Government: ‘What’s next?’ ‘What’s the next step towards the pathway to heal and bring together this country?’ And surely that next step is truth telling,” he said.
Former Greens Senator Lidia Thorpe, a Gunnai, Gunditjmara and Djab Wurring woman who quit the party over her opposition to the Voice proposal, welcomed the Greens move, saying a national truth and justice commission “is a crucial step toward justice and self-determination for First Peoples”.
However, Thorpe expressed pessimism about the prospect of Government support.
“It’s obvious there is no commitment to truth and treaty from Labor. To me it looks like Albanese’s promise of truth and treaty will join those made by Bob Hawke and Paul Keating before him, and Labor will again fail First Peoples in this country,” she told Parliament.
“Labor need to stop stringing us along and admit that they’ve failed. Your dishonesty is shameful and it’s hurting people. You need to be honest, clearly commit to telling the truth and move towards a treaty because that’s what First Peoples want.”
See Croakey’s archive of articles on the Uluru Statement From The Heart
