The head of Queensland’s truth-telling inquiry has accused the Crisafulli government of setting relations with Indigenous people back “for a very long time” as it moves to repeal the state’s historic pathway to treaty legislation in its first bill since winning last month’s state election.
The legislation is scheduled to be debated urgently on Thursday night, without a parliamentary inquiry, and looks certain to be the first passed by the new parliament.
One of its provisions repeals the historic Pathway to Treaty Act of 2023, eliminating the state’s treaty-making body and the truth-telling inquiry.
The truth-telling inquiry chairperson, Josh Creamer, said he was given no notice of the decision and was informed by email shortly after the deputy premier, Jarrod Bleijie, introduced the legislation on Thursday.
The government has yet to meet with the inquiry or even to make a phone call to Creamer since ordering it to close a month ago in a press conference.
Creamer said Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people had “lost a lot of trust” in the government due to its handling of the issue.
“It’s going to set back the relationship for a very long time. There was five or six years worth of work to develop this,” he said at a press conference on Thursday.
“As Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island people, we deserve better. We deserve the best and equal to what everyone else receives.”
Creamer said he had been invited to a meeting with minister Fiona Simpson tomorrow, but “the government certainly have no interest in listening”.
“There’s 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,” Creamer said.
The government passed an urgency motion – despite Labor opposition – to force the legislation through before midnight tonight without a committee inquiry.
It is expected to pass because the government has the numbers on the floor of parliament.
About 35 staff members of the inquiry will lose their current jobs, though some will be redeployed if they are permanent public servants.
Former Labor minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander partnerships Leanne Enoch shouted “you should be ashamed … you are a shame on the people of Queensland” at the government across the chamber, before being kicked out of parliament on Thursday.
Seleena Blackley, a member of the treaty institute council, said it was “quite a devastating day”.
“I not only think about the work [advocating for treaties] that I’ve done, but also the work that my elders and my ancestors have done years before I was born,” she said.
The legislation was introduced while 60 Indigenous children watched on from the public gallery. They were attending Queensland’s Indigenous youth parliament. Several cried.
Co-facilitator of the Indigenous youth leadership program Zhanae Dodd described the moment as one “that we’re going to look back on in history and go ‘we did not do the right thing by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people’”.
Greens MP Michael Berkman accused the government of a “racist agenda”.
“As their first order of business, they’re going to come out and completely trash whatever progress we’ve made in recent years? It’s utterly disgraceful.”
In opposition, all 34 LNP MPs voted for the pathway to treaty bill. At the time, LNP leader David Crisafulli said he hoped the law would be “a catalyst for materially improving the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in this state”. He changed his mind in the days after the failed voice referendum.
Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander partnerships, Fiona Simpson, has yet to take questions from media since the decision to close the inquiry a month ago.
“This legislation delivers on our election commitment to repeal the Path to Treaty Act and wind up the truth-telling and healing inquiry,” she said in a statement.
