Page 1431 - Week 04 - Thursday, 4 April 2019
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elders council to learn more about the Victorian process to inform their consideration of the implications of treaty for the ACT.
While treaty is first an agreement with traditional owners and traditional owner groups, I have also sought views on treaty for the ACT from the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elected Body. The elected body was unequivocal in supporting the inclusion in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander agreement cultural integrity action plan of a commitment to progressing treaty discussions, and this is indeed included in the action plan.
The commitment to treaty is at heart a recognition that the first peoples of this land did not cede their sovereignty, which brings me back to the importance of truth-telling. In this context I recognise federal Labor’s commitment to working with first nations people to establish a Makarrata commission. The healing process of truth-telling needs to be a national conversation, and I am sure voices from Canberra and the surrounding region will be heard. As the Uluru statement from the heart says:
With substantive constitutional change and structural reform, we believe this ancient sovereignty can shine through as a fuller expression of Australia’s nationhood.
Through events like NAIDOC Week and themes like “voice, treaty, truth” we will get closer to this fuller expression of our nationhood, of what Australia truly can be.
Question resolved in the affirmative.
The Assembly adjourned at 6.14 pm until Friday, 10 May 2019,
at 10 am.
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