Queensland vote signals green light for dozens of treaties in parallel with Indigenous voice to parliament

An independent institute will oversee treaty negotiations with dozens of Queensland’s Indigenous nations after landmark laws were passed in the state yesterday.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships Craig Crawford, Treaty Advancement Committee Co-Chair Dr Jackie Huggins and fellow Co-Chair Mick Gooda sign the Statement of Commitment to the Path to Treaty between the state and First Nations people, at Parliament House in Brisbane last year.

An independent institute will be set up to oversee treaty negotiations with dozens of Queensland’s Indigenous nations after landmark laws were passed by state parliament on Wednesday.

School curriculums could be changed, repatriations made and reforms introduced in health, criminal justice and child protection under the Path to Treaty legislation, which also establishes a three-year truth-telling inquiry that will travel the state.

Queensland, along with Victoria and the Northern Territory, is pursuing a treaty in parallel to the national referendum on constitutional recognition for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and the proposed voice to parliament.

Mick Gooda, the former human rights commissioner who helped design the state’s treaty laws, said Queensland’s model could lead to multiple treaties with Indigenous groups across Queensland, including the Torres Strait.

Former human rights commissioner Mick Gooda says Queensland’s model could lead to multiple treaties with Indigenous groups across Queensland, including the Torres Strait.

The exact number of treaties, which could take years to finalise, will depend on community consultation. “It’s really important that we go in with an open mind,” Mr Gooda said.

“The government and us have taken a view that it is all on the table right now and if we can’t agree, there can’t be a treaty.

“So the government hasn’t put limits on anything. As a matter of fact, if people have missed out on native title, they’re going to be able to enter into a treaty.”

The First Nations treaty institute will be set up to guide treaty discussions but it will be prohibited from negotiating with the government, requiring individual communities to lead the process.

“We don’t want the Treaty ­Institute to become the be all and end all of everything,” Mr Gooda said.

“It is about pushing decisions to communities.”

Labor backbencher Cynthia Lui, the first Torres Strait Islander elected to an Australian parliament, said treaty legislation “opens the door for better relationships” with government.

“As a First Nations woman, this bill speaks to my past, present and future,” she said.

“It gives recognition to our state’s painful past.”

Premier Palaszczuk during at Question Time in the Far North Queensland regional sitting of the Queensland Parliament, held at the Cairns Convention Centre this week. Picture: Brendan Radke

Laws were passed at a regional parliamentary sitting in Cairns, with support from the Liberal Nat­ional Party, Greens and independent Sandy Bolton.

A five-member truth-telling and healing inquiry to publicly air past injustices will also be established as part of the legislation and be handed the coercive powers of a royal commission.

The act’s preamble acknowledges “Aboriginal peoples and Torres Strait Islander peoples assert they have never ceded their sovereignty”.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships Minister Craig Crawford said laws would help to “reframe” relationship between government and First ­Nations people “as well as recognising the process of colonisation and its ongoing effects on marginalisation and disempowerment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples”.