The Queensland government has defied the wishes of many Indigenous people, including Stolen Generations survivors, by introducing legislation to repeal the Path to Treaty Act.
The Truth-telling and Healing Inquiry and the First Nations Treaty Institute will be finalised immediately, with the government claiming the funding allocated for the body will be spent on "projects and programs that improve the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Queensland".
"This legislation delivers on our election commitment to repeal the Path to Treaty Act and wind up the Truth-telling and Healing Inquiry," Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships, Fiona Simpson, said.
The Minister said: "Indigenous Queenslanders have been failed over a long period of time and we must take tangible steps now to improve that situation."
Despite no mention about Treaty or truth-telling on the Voice Referendum ballot last year, Minister Simpson argued the result - which saw 68 per cent of Queensland vote no - meant "Queenslanders wanted to be united, not divided".
The government has provided no evidence to suggest truth-telling is divisive.
First Nations people have long argued truth-telling is imperative for documenting the real history of First Peoples, and there doesn't need to be an either/or scenario over funding for health and housing.
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Speaking after the announcement, Inquiry Chairperson Josh Creamer said the decision was an "extraordinary act" which the new LNP government "snuck in" an amendment into the Olympic Games legislation to repeal the Path to Treaty Act.
When first announcing he would shut down the inquiry last month - without first informing the truth-telling body - new Premier David Crisafulli said it would be made with "respect and decency".
"Disappointingly," Mr Creamer said, "their [the government's] behaviour today in particular has certainly not demonstrated that."
Since the announcement by Premier Crisafulli on October 31st, Mr Creamer said he had not heard anything from the government.
However, he argued the decision must have been "well planned," because when the legislation was introduced into Parliament by the Deputy Premier, Mr Creamer said he "received simultaneously an email from the minister and an email from the director general".
He said there is "not any room in this government to listen to voices opposed to them, and there's certainly not any room in this government to listen to the voices of strong Indigenous leadership".
"The government certainly have no interest in listening."
Comparing the new LNP government to the previous one under Campbell Newman, he added: "I think the last time this government were in, they were known for their attack on institutions such as the arts and law, as two examples, and we've seen here today, really attack on an important institution as an inquiry."
"As Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, we deserve better. We deserve the best and equal to what everyone else receives," Mr Creamer said.
Last week he told the media he had made six requests for an urgent meeting with the premier, Minister Simpson, or the director-general of the department. A meeting with Minister Simpson was postponed, and Mr Creamer said he'd received "very little communication" from the government in the meantime.
"I saw the minister at the women's legal service breakfast yesterday and she ran away from me," Mr Creamer said last week.
"She certainly wasn't coming up to me for a chat. She saw me and went the other way."
The union representing 17,000 teachers and support staff in Queensland and Northern Territory non-government schools condemned the decision, with Independent Education Union – Queensland and NT (IEU-QNT) Branch Secretary Terry Burke calling it "disgraceful" and a "shameful day in our state's history".
"The Crisafulli government has continued to show its absolute disrespect to Queensland's First Nations Peoples and communities in using the first day in Parliament to repeal this important process," he said.
"The Crisafulli government might like to think it can stop the truth from being told but the truth of their disrespect towards Queensland's First Nations Peoples and communities cannot be hidden."
