Patrick Dodson (WA, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Reconciliation) Share this | Hansard source

The committee being proposed would begin the long journey to collect data and identify issues and challenges that may arise at the national level with truth-telling and agreement-making—issues and challenges that presently we all speculate and even hold fears about. It would review what has been happening internationally and identify what legal issues and challenges there may be at a national level if we go down the makarrata pathway. The aim of this exercise is to send a message to those who are focused solely on a voice to the parliament or to the government, but there are other aspects of the Uluru Statement that are not lost on the parliament. The committee would be taking an initial step to help parliamentarians and the community more generally to become aware of what some of the key elements in truth-telling and treaty-making might be at the national level.