"Lost opportunity": LNP government set to scrap Queensland's truth-telling inquiry and Path to Treaty Act

Dechlan Brennan
Dechlan Brennan Published October 31, 2024 at 7.00pm (AWST)

New Queensland Premier David Crisafulli says he will abolish the state's Truth-Telling and Healing Inquiry and repeal the Path to Treaty Act.

A year this month since the now Premier backflipped and declared he would not support the truth-telling inquiry after the defeated Voice referendum, Mr Crisafulli told reporters on Thursday it would be scrapped but claimed he didn't want to make it a "divisive issue".

He said the Path to Treaty legislation would be repealed later this year, and the truth-telling events planned for December would not take place.

"We won't be allowing those to go ahead, but it will be done with respect and decency," he claimed.

"We haven't been able to meet as a parliament yet, but my strong advice to people running that process is the new government has been very clear that we are not embarking on that process."

Mr Crisafulli said: "We've made a decision. It's the right decision, and we stand by it. But I don't want to cause angst to people."

Chairperson Joshua Creamer said he hadn't heard from the new government, but confirmed the pause.

"However, based on the premier's comments, the inquiry will pause its current work plan until further information is available," the barrister and Waanyi and Kalkadoon man said.

Mr Creamer said there was nothing divisive about "people sharing their stories to capture an accurate history of our state is not divisive".

"I'm hopeful the inquiry can remain in some form to continue this critical work before it's too late," he said.

"I welcome the opportunity to discuss the inquiry's work with the premier and incoming minister, as well as all members of parliament."

If the inquiry is stopped, permanently, Mr Creamer said it would be "a lost opportunity for the state".

"We are not going to get another opportunity at this in the next decade, two decades, in my lifetime," he said.

Mr Crisafulli said his new government doesn't believe truth-telling will be something "that unites the community".

He urged people to "put their focus into the areas that can drive change," citing home ownership and lifting education standards.

The community-led information sessions Minjerribah (North Stradbroke Island) will go ahead this weekend, but with the inquiry not attending due to the pause.

The three-year inquiry has been years in the making, with the plan to create a real account of the colonisation of Queensland.

It held its first hearings in September with the goal of setting up groundwork for eventual Treaty negotiations.

In September, seven heads of Queensland government departments, including Police Commissioner Gollschewski, admitted they had "failed" Aboriginal people "for 160 years"—in some cases, going so far as to deliberately kill them.

At the time, Mr Creamer said: "If I could sum up what I've heard this morning it's generally from representative government that 'we failed you for 160 years in various forms.'"

"And really this might be the first opportunity, then, to create a level of accountability."

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National Indigenous Times

Disclaimer: This function is AI-generated and therefore may mispronounce.