Adam Bandt (Melbourne, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

This land is an ancient land, home to the longest continuous culture in the history of the world. There were over 250 individual nations at the time of colonisation. There were over 800 dialects. But, without justice, how can they be heard? First Nations people were violently dispossessed of the land and are now, thanks to the legacy of colonisation, locked up and thrown in jail at a higher rate than any other group of people in the world.

First Nations people are more likely to be imprisoned as children. In the Northern Territory, 100 per cent of the youth prison population under the age of 14 is First Nations. First Nations people are more likely to die in prison. Generations of First Nations children have been stolen from their parents, and it continues to this day. First Nations people have shorter lives and less secure homes and are in greater need of healthcare and education. They are inviting us to walk with them in a movement of the Australian people for a better future.

The policies of this nation that have been made by this parliament have failed. Now, around this country, efforts are being made to lift the age at which children can be thrown in prison from as young as 10 to 14. Because First Nations people are too often ignored, governments are not amending our laws to be consistent with those around the world. The Uluru Statement from the Heart was an attempt to reckon with his past and to create a better future. It states:

We are not an innately criminal people. Our children are aliened from their families at unprecedented rates. This cannot be because we have no love for them.

The statement also says:

These dimensions of our crisis tell plainly the structural nature of our problem. This is the torment of our powerlessness.

The ask is simple:

… to empower our people and take a rightful place in our own country.

This is because with power, 'our children will flourish.' It is to empower through truth, treaty and voice. If you actually listen, you find it is non-negotiable to give those who have survived the power over their lives so that their children can flourish; for a chance, not a sentence; for a life, not a death behind bars. All of that is clear from the Uluru Statement from the Heart. The statement makes clear that the path forward is progress on all three elements. The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice, which is the subject of this legislation before the parliament this week, is just one part of this.

Now, the Greens are firm in our view, informed by our strong First Nations network, that there will be no justice in this country without truth or treaty. We must begin to tell the truth about the history of violence and dispossession that lies at the heart of this country called Australia. We must reach a treaty with our First Nations people so that we can move forward together and create a better future together. These are key elements of the statement from the heart, and the Greens had hoped to see progress on these elements first, but the government has chosen to proceed with voice first, and the Greens want to see it succeed not only because it is a key element of the Uluru statement but because failure will take us further away from truth and treaty.

But there are those in this parliament who want to deny justice to First Nations people. The Leader of the Opposition has taken this opportunity to divide instead of unite; to continue a long tradition of seeking to use race to win votes.

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