Standing with First Nations — Australian Democrats

Voice, Treaty, Truth — explained

Tap each pillar of the Uluru Statement to see what it means and where we stand.

The plan at a glance

Honour the Uluru Statement

Voice, Treaty and Truth — backing state-level progress and connecting it to deep listening federally.

Self-determination, community by community

Decisions made with communities, in line with the UN Declaration and the Closing the Gap review.

Economic independence

Address wealth inequities directly — ownership, employment, enterprise.

Truth in every classroom

Civics education aligned with truth-telling, so the nation knows its own story.

Listening vs legislating at people

The difference between programs done to communities and decisions made with them.

Done to — the pattern

Policies parachuted in without consent
Gap targets missed year after year
Funding cycles outliving no program
History taught with the hard parts missing

Decided with — our commitment

Voice structures at every level of government
Shared decision-making as the default
Economic independence, not managed poverty
Truth-telling backed by civics education

The full policy

Word for word — the platform as our members wrote it.

The Issues

Successive Governments have failed our First Nations People.

In 1992, Paul Keating in his Redfern speech called on us to, in essence, participate in the truth-telling:

the starting point might be to recognise that the problem starts with us non-Aboriginal Australians. It begins, I think, with that act of recognition. Recognition that it was we who did the dispossessing. We took the traditional lands and smashed the traditional way of life. We brought the diseases. The alcohol. We committed the murders. We took the children from their mothers. We practised discrimination and exclusion. It was our ignorance and our prejudice we failed to see that what we were doing degraded all of us.

— Paul Keating, Redfern Speech, 1992

Some thirty years on, while there has been some progress at a state level, we have not progressed the truth-telling process at a federal level. We have a failed referendum and therefore do not have Constitutional recognition, nor do we have an established Voice to Parliament at a federal level, and the Closing the Gap measures are largely not on track (and in some cases worsening). It’s just not good enough and while we wait for a government with the fortitude to really progress reconciliation and close the gap, our first nations people continue to suffer.

We need to close the gap in health, education and life expectancy of First Nations people.

Lack of progress around facilitating First Nations Voices, and truth-telling to begin the healing process is prolonging the agony and hurting us as a nation.

Systemic racism, casual and directed continues to result in poor outcomes, including over-representation of First Nations children in out of home/foster care, over-representation of First Nations people in juvenile detention/custody, and inability for our First Nations people to heal.

We have a dominance of conservative press that is primed for negative click bait, and lack of truth in advertising that means that ‘good news’ is under-reported and that money buys you the narrative you want as seen in the recent ‘No’ campaign material in the referendum.

Our Plan

Commitment to the Uluru Statement From the Heart: Voice, Treaty, Truth supporting state-level solutions on voice, treaty and truth-telling, and looking for opportunities to connect this to deep listening at a federal level.
Self-determination at a community level, in line with the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and as recommended by the Productivity Commission’s review of the Closing the Gap.
Economic independence, addressing inequities in wealth distribution.
Evidence-informed, culturally safe solutions to address the inequality faced by First Nations People across Australia.
Greater civics education, in line with a truth-telling process, supporting our many histories and telling the stories of who we are as a nation in order for us to move forward together.
Safeguarding sacred sites responsibly and consultatively.

The Evidence

The evidence base for these reforms is drawn from the leading reviews, inquiries and scholarship on First Nations policy in Australia, including:

Closing the Gap Annual Report and Implementation Plan.
History Professor Clare Wright of Latrobe University in The Conversation, Masters of the future or heirs of the past? Mining, history and Indigenous ownership.
Research Fellow (Indigenous Diplomacy), Australian National University, James Blackwell, in The Conversation, Forgiveness requires more than just an apology. It requires action.
Wiyi Yani U Thangani (Women’s Voices): Securing Our Rights, Securing Our Future Report.
Productivity Commission review of the National Agreement on Closing the Gap Report.
United Nations’ Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

References

Closing the Gap Annual Report and Implementation Plan.
Clare Wright, Latrobe University, Masters of the future or heirs of the past? Mining, history and Indigenous ownership, The Conversation.
James Blackwell, Australian National University, Forgiveness requires more than just an apology. It requires action, The Conversation.
Wiyi Yani U Thangani (Women’s Voices): Securing Our Rights, Securing Our Future Report.
Productivity Commission review of the National Agreement on Closing the Gap Report.
United Nations’ Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Make it happen.

Policies like this only become law when enough people push. Push with us.

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Voice. Treaty. Truth. Still the way forward.