Uluru Statement from the Heart

The Hon. L.A. HENDERSON (15:07): My question is to the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs. Now that the state First Nations Voice is legislated and elections—

The Hon. T.A. FRANKS: Point of order: the topic is meant to be cited as well as the minister.

The Hon. L.A. HENDERSON: On Aboriginal affairs.

The PRESIDENT: Continue.

The Hon. L.A. HENDERSON: Now that the state First Nations Voice is legislated and elections occur soon, what is the government's plan to implement the next stages of the Uluru Statement from the Heart—the establishment of the Makarrata Commission to supervise Treaty and truth-telling?

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Attorney-General, Minister for Industrial Relations and Public Sector) (15:08): I thank the honourable member for her question. We did indeed take as a policy to the election and, as I think I have outlined to this chamber before, it was the very first policy we announced, way back in July of 2019 during NAIDOC week—and I don't think it's a deliberate mischaracterisation that the honourable member is making, I expect it is just she is not as familiar with this policy area as some others, but what we did was committed to a state-based implementation of the Uluru Statement. We didn't commit to implement it in exactly the same way that has been proposed federally.

The honourable member, I think, in suggesting the definitive proposition that we will establish a Makarrata Commission, as she said in her question—we never said that we will be doing that. What we did say is that we will be looking at the elements that make up the Uluru Statement from the Heart: Voice, Treaty and Truth. The Voice component this parliament has implemented and, as the honourable member points out, there are elections occurring now. Nominations closed over a week ago and elections are due to finalise on 16 March, with successful results declared later in that month.

The other elements of the Uluru Statement from the Heart, Treaty and Truth, we don't have a definitive plan about how we are going to do that and that is the whole point of listening to Aboriginal people: we don't say what we are going to do to Aboriginal people, we consult with Aboriginal people about how we go about that.

It is the case that back in, I think, 2015, we started in South Australia and we were proudly the first place in the nation to do so, as we were with the legislated Voice, to start on Treaty discussions with Aboriginal communities. We had what was at the time the largest consultation with Aboriginal communities which was only surpassed recently with our First Nations Voice Commissioner's more extensive consultations about Treaty in South Australia.

As a result of those discussions on Treaty during the last term of the last Labor government, we started negotiations with three nations, Narungga, Ngarrindjeri and Adnyamathanha, and signed the first agreement on the way to a Treaty process ever signed in Australia, the Buthera Agreement with the Narungga Nation.

Since the scrapping of any discussions about Treaty with the intervening one term of a Liberal government, much has changed in the Treaty space around Australia. Victoria is now well advanced with their First People's Assembly. There is a report from the Commissioner for Treaty in the Northern Territory, there is Treaty-enabling legislation that has passed in Queensland, there is a commitment in New South Wales to look at Treaty discussions and there are discussions in Tasmania.

In Western Australia, the Noongar native title settlement, I think most people regard as Australia's first ever Treaty, although it was an ILUA and a native title settlement. Once the Voice is up and running and settled in, we intend to discuss with the Voice to get some views about how we progress that in South Australia. We don't have a definitive view about how we do it, but we are certainly not going to do it in isolation from Aboriginal people.