‘Land tax’: Secret document reveals demand for ‘percentage of GDP’ under Indigenous Treaty

Taxpayers may be forced to pay “reparations” under a proposed treaty, with suggestions that “a fixed percentage” of GDP be handed over.

Taxpayers may be forced to pay “reparations” to Indigenous Australians for “past, present and future criminal acts” under a proposed treaty, with suggestions that “a fixed percentage” of GDP be handed over through “rates, land tax and royalties”, documents released under freedom of information reveal.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has previously committed to implementing “in full” all the elements of the Uluru Statement from the Heart, which calls for “Voice, Treaty, Truth”.

If the Indigenous Voice to Parliament passes at the upcoming referendum, the next step would be the Makarrata Commission, which would lead the process of treaty-making between First Nations people and federal, state and local governments.

The PM has likened the Uluru Statement to the Gettysburg Address, calling it “a short document long in the making” that is a “master class in spare eloquence”.

But according to Sky News host Peta Credlin, FOI documents released by the National Indigenous Australians Agency (NIAA) earlier this year reveal that, contrary to Mr Albanese’s characterisation of the Uluru Statement as a “two-minute” read that can “fit on one A4 page”, the 2017 declaration is actually 26 pages.

The “full” Uluru Statement was included in a lengthy batch of NIAA documents, which also contains minutes from 13 “regional dialogue” consultation events with around 1200 Indigenous people that informed the final wording.

Credlin told viewers on Thursday that the tenor of the full statement was actually one “of anger, grievance, separatism, and the need to undo, as far as possible, the last 240 years of Australian history”.

“And it’s the whole 26 pages of the Uluru Statement from the Heart that every Australian should read, not the PM’s sanitised one-pager, before they cast their vote in the upcoming referendum,” she said.

Anthony Albanese wearing a ‘Voice, Treaty, Truth’ T-shirt. Picture: Daily Mail

Treaty is ‘culmination of our agenda’

The second part of the statement begins by noting First Nations people coexisted on this land for “at least 60,000 years” and that “our sovereignty pre-existed the Australian state and has survived it”, arguing the “unfinished business of Australia’s nationhood includes recognising the ancient jurisdictions of First Nations law”.

“The law was violated by the coming of the British to Australia,” it says.

“Australia was not a settlement and it was not a discovery. It was an invasion. The invasion that started at Botany Bay is the origin of the fundamental grievance between the old and new Australians — that Australia was colonised without the consent of its rightful owners.”

It speaks of the “Tasmanian Genocide and the Black War waged by the colonists” in the “evil time” marked by “massacres, disease and poison”, ultimately leading to “new policies of control and discrimination” as the violence subsided.

“At the heart of our activism has been the long struggle for land rights and recognition of native title,” it says.

“This struggle goes back to the beginning. The taking of our land without consent represents our fundamental grievance against the British Crown. Makarrata is another word for Treaty or agreement-making. It is the culmination of our agenda. It captures our aspirations for a fair and honest relationship with government and a better future for our children based on justice and self-determination.”

It adds, “By making agreements at the highest level, the negotiation process with the Australian government allows First Nations to express our sovereignty.”

Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney in Prospect. Picture: Naomi Jellicoe

‘Reparations for criminal acts’

The document goes on to outline “reform priorities” that were expressed with the “highest level of support across the country” during the dialogues. “Treaty was seen as a pathway to recognition of sovereignty and for achieving future meaningful reform for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples,” it says.

“Treaty would be the vehicle to achieve self-determination, autonomy and self-government. The pursuit of Treaty and treaties was strongly supported across the Dialogues. In relation to content, the Dialogues discussed that a Treaty could include a proper say in decision-making, the establishment of a truth commission, reparations, a financial settlement (such as seeking a percentage of GDP), the resolution of land, water and resources issues, recognition of authority and customary law, and guarantees of respect for the rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples.”

One section from the minutes from the Dubbo dialogue noted support for a treaty that would provide “reparations for past criminal acts and compensation for present and future criminal acts”.

Participants in the Hobart dialogue stated that a treaty “must include” land and sea rights, “a fixed percentage of gross nation [sic] product” through “rates/land tax/royalties” and “Aboriginal control”.

A number of participants said the Voice to Parliament must be “better than ATSIC”, the scandal-plagued Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission which was abolished by the government in 2005.

“We lost ATSIC at the stroke of a pen,” one Brisbane dialogue participant said. “Would you abolish Westpac Bank if two or three of its directors were not doing the right thing? I don’t think so.”

The NIAA declined to comment.

The PM has said the Voice is not about a treaty. Picture: Martin Ollman/NCA NewsWire

Treaty ‘a separate issue’

It comes as Mr Albanese faced attacks from the Opposition in parliament this week after he was seen in resurfaced footage at a Midnight Oil concert wearing a T-shirt reading “Voice, Treaty, Truth”.

Liberal deputy leader Sussan Ley used Question Time on Monday to ask about a recent radio interview in which the PM said the upcoming Voice referendum was not about a treaty.

“I thank whoever was interjecting about my T-shirt because yes, Mr Speaker, Ben Fordham has exposed the fact that at the Midnight Oil concert, I wore a Midnight Oil T-shirt,” the PM said.

“I know, Mr Speaker … hold the front page. I am talking about what the referendum is about and it strikes me that the opponents of the referendum, those who are advocating a No vote, want to talk about everything but what the question is about — recognition, listening, in order to get better results.”

Liberal MP Paul Fletcher also asked Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney how the Makarrata Commission would work should the Voice be successful.

As she took to the dispatch box, Mr Albanese could be heard interjecting, “It’s a separate issue.”

Former Prime Minister Tony Abbott told 2GB on Tuesday that Mr Albanese had misled Australians when he said the Voice was not about a treaty.

“Quite apart from anything the Prime Minister chose to wear at a concert, I go back to that initial statement he made as Prime Minister,” he said.

“The new government is committed to the Uluru statement from the Heart in full — in other words, ‘Voice, Treaty, Truth’ in full. It was, as I said, a moment of amnesia for the Prime Minister to deny here in this chair last week that the Voice had anything to do with treaty. It has everything to do with treaty. The whole point of having a Voice, if the activists are to be believed, is to start the treaty-making process, and government ministers have said as much.”

Credlin said the NIAA documents were at odds with Mr Albanese’s claim that treaty-making processes would be led by states and territories, rather than on the federal level.

“Contrary to PM’s current, poll-panicked claim that the Voice is not about treaties, these official documents confirm that treaties, indeed, are the Uluru Statement’s precise point,” she said.

Senator and leading No campaigner Jacinta Price. Picture: Martin Ollman/NCA NewsWire

‘Could take 20 years’

Voice supporters this week attempted to hose down treaty talks, with prominent Yes campaigner Marcus Stewart telling The Sydney Morning Herald treaties “will come at no cost to Australians and could take 10 to 20 years to be negotiated”.

Yes campaign leader Dean Parkin accused the No side of scaremongering and said the upcoming referendum was “about one thing and one thing only, and that is about getting an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice to close the gap”.

“It’s important to understand that treaty processes, as the leader of the opposition well understands, are decades-long processes and take a long time to finalise,” he told the newspaper.

Speaking to RN Breakfast on Wednesday, Mr Albanese said processes to negotiate treaties were ongoing with the states and likened being asked if he supported treaty to “like saying do you support the sun coming up”.

“It’s occurring in Victoria, it’s occurring in Queensland, it’s occurring in the Northern Territory,” he said.

Ms Burney has been contacted for comment.

— with NCA NewsWire

Originally published as ‘Land tax’: Secret document reveals demand for ‘percentage of GDP’ under Indigenous Treaty