“Let’s tell some truth… We are the fabric of this country and we’re not treated like that. We’re treated with contempt, really, we’ve got to always prove our existence in this country. So truth will help heal, truth will help unite. Treaty is a mechanism for a negotiation of settlement,” Senator Thorpe said.
Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney has previously indicated the government’s willingness to work on implementing all elements of the Uluru Statement, saying in May “everything is on the table”.
Thorpe said the Greens were ready to negotiate in good faith, as they had done on the climate change bill, and that she hoped the prime minister came to negotiations with an “open heart, ready to listen and work together to deliver justice to First Nations people”.
“The PM said that Treaty is ‘ambitious’. After 230 years of colonization, we need ambition. I challenge the PM to do the work. Any process that could be rushed through the parliament in six months is unlikely to involve any meaningful transfer of power. Self-determination is a human right.”
The Greens will ask for the full implementation of the recommendations contained in the 1991 Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody and the 1997 Bringing Them Home report on the separation of Aboriginal children from their families.
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A 2018 review found 64 per cent of Deaths in Custody recommendations had been fully implemented and 14 per cent had been mostly implemented.
Thorpe also wants the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples enshrined in Commonwealth law.
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