Lidia Thorpe (Victoria, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the report of the inquiry into the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples—what we call the UNDRIP—by the Joint Standing Committee on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs.

This inquiry emerged from an earlier inquiry into the application of UNDRIP in Australia which I initiated in March last year and which lapsed at the end of the last parliament. At the start of this parliament, the government, instead of allowing me to re-establish my original inquiry to continue its work, forced, without precedent, a new inquiry with changed terms of reference. These were much less inclusive or solution focused. But they were clearly intended to spruik the government's pursuit of a voice to parliament as implementing the UNDRIP. Nevertheless, the report tabled today, which draws on evidence not just from the current inquiry but also from my previous inquiry, clearly shows that ensuring our rights are protected and adhered to takes much more than a powerless representative body.

The UNDRIP can do so much more for our people than the voice ever could. It is not divisive but embraced by communities all over the country—in fact, all over the world. The UNDRIP doesn't create new rights for first peoples but it embodies many human rights principles, already protected under international customary and treaty law. It sets minimum standards for human rights for Indigenous peoples and government interactions with us. It is not asking for special treatment and it has been developed by Indigenous peoples from across the world over many years. As the term 'minimum standard' already tells you, it's a simple yet powerful basis for pursuing justice for First Nations people in this country. But the settler colonial states are incredibly scared of it, just as we saw today with Labor announcing in the paper—and they couldn't even bring themselves to tell me this—that they were not supporting it.

There were only four countries which opposed the UNDRIP when it was first adopted by the United Nations in 2007. Guess who they were? The United States, Canada, New Zealand and, of course, the lucky country called Oz: Australia—all settler colonial states. When Australia finally endorsed the declaration in 2009, it was clear that it did not intend to actually implement it: just like Labor today won't implement it! This has been proven again and again by the inaction at all levels of government in implementing it and by the often blatant breaches of our rights as first peoples—by dispossessing us and destroying our country; desecrating and destroying our sacred sites; ignoring first peoples' concerns; or not even consulting, to name just a few.

Australia's human rights record is shocking—we know that. It seems to be the norm these days. It's record of complying with the UNDRIP principles—first and foremost, the core principles are of self-determination, where we decide our own future and not the Labor Party; the right to free, prior and informed consent; and a right to maintain and practice culture.

The tabled report includes a long list of additional comments and recommendations from me. Time does not allow me to expand on all of these, but I will touch on a few. I welcome the committee recommending the development of a national action plan, which is great, to implement UNDRIP and to pursue truth and treaty—even though they wouldn't even vote for it yesterday. In particular, I wish to underline our peoples calls for truth and treaty, even though yesterday Labor voted down truth and treaty. We've been calling for this since the first day this country was colonised, and these processes need to be pursued immediately. Their compatibility and, indeed, the complementary and beneficial effects of implementing the UNDRIP have been clearly outlined in the committee report. We cannot waste any more time in pursuing them alongside each other.

I also welcome the recommendation to amend the Human Rights (Parliamentary Scrutiny) Act 2011 to include the consideration of UNDRIP. Knowing how legislation breaches the rights of our First Peoples, this can increase government consideration of our rights and build pressure to adhere to them. And, so, this is an easy yet potent step to take. In fact, this is something I have argued for for a while, and I wish to foreshadow that tomorrow I will seek to introduce a private senators bill to amend the Human Rights (Parliamentary Scrutiny) Act 2011 to include the consideration of UNDRIP to immediately progress that recommendation.

Besides these commendable recommendations, the committee's core recommendation for a national action plan fails to take into account one of the most striking pieces of evidence received during the inquiry. There was overwhelming support from around the world, from international and national witnesses, aside from the Australian government and its agencies, that a legislative approach to implementing the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples provides clear advantages over a policy approach. Even the committee itself in this report acknowledged this, yet it could not bring itself to recommend it. As a Labor dominated committee, where you can hardly get a word in, the committee members commitment to avoid pressuring their government into anything is, sadly, higher than the commitment to First Nations justice. How much is it really a committee for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people?

Legislative implementation of the UNDRIP is a fundamental principle of international law and has been recommended by member states of the United Nations. It would provide greater support for clarification of principles such as self-determination and free, prior and informed consent. History has shown that implementing the UNDRIP has not been a priority for Australian governments, including this one, on all levels, and there has been widespread assessment of this country's failure to comply with the principles of the declaration.

Legislative implementation of the UNDRIP would ensure greater protection, promotion and prioritisation of our rights as First Peoples and ensure that the advancement of these rights remains a responsibility of any future government independently of their political leaning. Policy based approaches to implementing UNDRIP can result in future government's deprioritising its advancement, which can lead to significant delays in implementation, as can be seen in the case of New Zealand, or it could be abandoned altogether. So you're putting it at risk, Labor.

Given Australia's colonial history, the ongoing resulting injustices and structural racism, and the lack of even a broader human rights framework in this country to revert to, this is not a risk that we can take as a nation. Next week, my private senator's bill, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Bill, is up for debate. It mirrors the Canadian bill, where—according to what we learnt during the inquiry—nothing ever progressed implementation of UNDRIP as much as legislating it. There have been great outcomes for communities in Canada already as a result. My bill will require the Commonwealth government to take measures to ensure consistency between Commonwealth law and the declaration.

Yet today, I read in the Guardianthat the Labor caucus decided not to support the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples being legislated in this country. Well, shame on you, Labor. Shame, shame, gammon, shame!