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

On Sunday, Clinton Pryor arrived in Canberra. Clinton is a Wajuk, Balardung, Kija and a Yulparitja man who has walked over 6,000 kilometres from Perth, where he started his journey a year ago. Clinton has come here to deliver a message of justice and sovereignty for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. It was my privilege to sit down with Clinton when he came through Melbourne three months ago, and this morning at the Aboriginal Tent Embassy, along with other MPs and senators, I listened to Clinton and elders.

The elders talked of the injustices that face Aboriginal peoples across Australia: the forced closures of Aboriginal communities on homelands in Western Australia; 10 years of the Northern Territory intervention; cashless welfare cards, taking us back to the shameful days of the ration system; rights of custodians to land and water being ignored and abused by big mining companies; deaths in custody; a justice system that too often is not justice, but merely a code for power exerted against Aboriginal peoples; too many children still being taken from their families and communities, years on from the stolen generations; and the failure of Australian governments to take real action to address the injustice.

We live in a land where injustice is an ongoing reality. The sovereignty of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples was never ceded. The Australian government must act in good faith to work towards a genuine treaty or treaties with sovereign Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. This is the message that Clinton has walked so far to deliver. Politicians here must listen and act.