No secrets: First Nations truth-telling inquiry will have power to compel evidence
Queensland’s Indigenous truth telling inquiry will have the power to compel people and entities to give evidence and will likely be up and running within 12 months.
Minister for Communities and Housing Leeanne Enoch and Member for Cook Cynthia Lui show emotion during the signing of an Indigenous Treaty commitment statement at Parliament House in Brisbane, Tuesday. (AAP Image/Jono Searle)
The state government has pledged to hold an inquiry as part of its plan to strike historic treaties with the Indigenous peoples of Queensland, which was unveiled on Tuesday.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island Partnerships Minister Craig Crawford says the inquiry will likely be up and running by mid-2023.
It won’t be a royal commission but the inquiry will have the legal power to compel witnesses to give evidence about past and ongoing injustices against First Nations people.
“Sometimes a royal commission can be too overwhelming and might even scare off traditional owners and Aboriginal people and others from being part of it,” Crawford told ABC Radio National on Wednesday.
“But it needs to have the powers to compel, to be able to demand evidence and those sorts of things from governments, and from agencies, and anyone who might hold it, so we’ll build those powers as part of the legislation.”
A truth inquiry to “correct the record” of Queensland’s colonial history in institutions and school curricula, he said, was essential for Indigenous peoples before any treaty can be signed.
He said “there’s an obligation” the Commonwealth ensures truth telling occurs in states not planning inquiries but any national initiatives shouldn’t overlap with inquiries in Queensland, Victoria and the Northern Territory.
“I’d hope we’re not covering the same ground twice in some places but at the same time, we can’t leave ground uncovered,” Crawford said.
The minister also said Queensland was likely to sign multiple treaties with the state’s Indigenous peoples, rather than a single treaty.
He thinks some treaties may be signed with multiple First Nations people of the same language group or dialect or with individual Traditional Owner groups.
Some Indigenous peoples may wants different things included treaties, such as compensation for loss of country and culture or access to their land and waterways.
“So we’re open to that, we’re not going to certainly restrict Traditional Owner groups to having to do this as one,” he said.
“But we’re also mindful, like I said before, we do have the Torres Strait. So I would expect Torres Strait Island, that nation up there, I would expect them to be wanting to certainly do their own trading probably distinctly different to the Aboriginal people.”
