Tuesday 5 November 2024
Truth-Telling and Healing Inquiry Chairperson, Joshua Creamer, has acknowledged formal communication received from the new Queensland Government of its intention to cease the Truth-telling and Healing Inquiry and repeal the Path to Treaty Act 2023 (the Act). This was outlined in a letter to the Chairperson from Minister for Women and Women's Economic Security, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships and Multiculturalism.
In response to the letter, received by the Inquiry late on 4 November 2024, Mr Creamer acknowledges those who have come forward and shared their evidence, together with Elders who have engaged in the process to-date, as well as community members, businesses and government agencies, who have engaged with the Inquiry’s work.
“I’m incredibly proud of the work the Inquiry achieved – from holding hearings and sessions, conducting community codesign processes, fulfilling our public awareness and educative functions, culminating in the publication of our first report on 25 October 2024,” Mr Creamer said.
“Myself and the four Members – Cheryl Buchanan, Vonda Malone, Ivan Ingram and the Honourable Roslyn Atkinson AO - have travelled to many locations across the state in that time to meet with communities and acknowledge the many people and organisations who have supported the Inquiry’s work.
“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.”
“Inquiries are set up with the power of government,” he says. “That is the only way to set them up because it is government who can ensure the proper protections exists 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,” he says.
“That legislation facilitated the removal of people from their families, separated them out into different communities across Queensland - this is the last generation living to share that evidence and when they're gone that direct evidence will be lost.”
While the Inquiry had been discussed publicly during the lead-up to the election, Mr Creamer says it still came as a shock to receive the formal communication that the Queensland Government intends to cease the Inquiry, despite hopes that it could be allowed to continue its critical work.
“These stories, that experience, that evidence isn't going to be around for much longer,” Mr Creamer says.
“People are literally dying before they have the opportunity to share their story.”
He says he is grateful for the support Queenslanders throughout the state showed for the Inquiry.
“The establishment of this Inquiry was a really historic moment in our time,” he says.
“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.”
The Truth-telling and Healing Inquiry was set up as a legal process to forensically investigate and document an issue of importance to all Queenslanders. It is unprecedented in this state that an independent Inquiry be shut down as a result of a change of government.
The Truth-telling and Healing Inquiry is a respected independent legal process that is for everyone, that embraces all perspectives – by hearing evidence from Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander, and non-Indigenous Queenslanders.
The Inquiry members have sought legal advice following correspondence from the Minister and have formed the view that it is not appropriate to proceed with the Inquiry’s work at this stage.
The Inquiry will continue to seek further information from the Queensland Government about its plans to cease the Inquiry, including how it will support participants and staff employed to assist the Inquiry.