Queensland has lost an “opportunity of a generation” after the newly elected government scrapped an Indigenous-led inquiry into truth-telling and healing for First Nations communities.
During his election campaign, Queensland Premier David Crisafulli vowed to repeal the Path to Treaty Act 2023 and end the Truth-Telling and Healing Inquiry, chaired by lawyer and Waanyi and Kalkadoon man Joshua Creamer.
Crisafulli’s reason to scrap the inquiry largely sat with the outcome of the 2023 national referendum on an Indigenous Voice to Parliament, where more than 60 per cent of Australia voted “no”. Queensland was the strongest opposer to the referendum, with more than 68 per cent of the state voting against an Indigenous Voice to Parliament.
Despite the outcome of the referendum, the former Queensland Labor government proceeded with the truth-telling inquiry.
One of Crisafulli’s government’s first announcements following the LNP’s victory in the state election last month was to follow through on this promise – to repeal the legislation that facilitated the truth-telling inquiry to proceed. In a press conference last week, Crisafulli announced the inquiry would no longer be going ahead.
The announcement was made without any prior consultation or communication with Creamer and his team.
The Truth-Telling and Healing Inquiry published its first report on 25 October, after completing its first evidence hearing bloc. The inquiry heard from First Nations elders who had lived experience of living in missions, suffering abuse, working through the stolen wages regime, and much more.
Creamer and his four members on his team – Cheryl Buchanan, Vonda Malone, Ivan Ingram and the Honourable Roslyn Atkinson AO – said they had much more work to do, before the inquiry was shut down.
After receiving formal communication from the Queensland LNP government to end the inquiry late on Monday, Creamer released a statement saying he was “incredibly proud” of the work done so far.
“This process has united Queenslanders who have called for a process of truth-telling to record an authentic and accurate history of this state that includes the evidence of the lived experiences of Queensland’s Indigenous peoples,” Creamer said.
“Inquiries are set up with the power of government. That is the only way to set them up because it is government who can ensure the proper protections exist for Members of the Inquiry and those who come before it.
“It is a lost opportunity for the state. It’ll be a lost opportunity for our generation. And I want people to know that this is the last generation of people who grew up under the protection Acts.”
Under historic legislation following British invasion and colonisation of Australia, First Nations families and communities were torn apart, children were raised in missions, and Indigenous people were treated as second class citizens. Many died, and many suffered trauma that is still ongoing centuries later.
Much of Australia’s history has been recounted in documents developed by British colonisers, governments and leaders who contributed to the erasure of Indigenous history and culture.
In Queensland, the Truth-Telling and Healing Inquiry, established by the former Labor government, was a way to rewrite history from the perspective of Australia’s First Peoples, and to collate a true account of the existence of Indigenous Australians, and colonisation in Australia.
“These stories, that experience, that evidence isn’t going to be around for much longer,” chairperson of the inquiry Creamer said.
“People are literally dying before they have the opportunity to share their story.”
Creamer said the process of truth-telling for Indigenous Australians has been in the works for more than a century.
“The establishment of this Inquiry was a really historic moment in our time,” Creamer said.
“But actually before that, for generations Aboriginal peoples and Torres Strait Islander peoples have wanted their story told.
“It’s a hundred years or longer of work in getting to this point of us as a state coming to a point where we realise we actually have to do something about our historical record, and we have failed to capture the Indigenous perspective in that.”
Today is the first day of the 2024 National Reconciliation Action Plan Conference in Meanjin (Brisbane). More than 900 partners and supporters of reconciliation will be attending, with truth-telling a key issue to be discussed by panellists throughout the day.