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

I move:

That, in the opinion of the Senate, the following is a matter of urgency:

The government progresses the unfinished business of Treaty now and without delay, being a key mechanism to address systemic injustices towards First Nations people in this country and allowing us all to unite and heal as a nation.

Treaty is an end to the war that was declared on First Nations people 230 years ago. Yes, it is a war. Yes, we are still in a war. The war contains over 500 deaths in custody. The war contains 23,000 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children taken away from their families, from their mother's breast. War is destruction of land, sea, waterways and totems. That is a war against First Peoples and this country—this country's beautiful natural resources that were used by our people before invasion. It's how we survived as a race of people, the oldest continuing living culture on the planet. We survived. We survived genocide by those who came 230 years ago.

That's why we want peace today. A treaty is about coming together as a nation and having peace amongst us. It's having a day we can all celebrate. It's removing the systemic racism that we deal with every single minute of every single day in this country. Treaty is what Bob Hawke called for. Treaty is what the Redfern speech by Paul Keating was all about. Now what are we doing? We're doing everything but treaty. We're tinkering around the edges because the true sovereigns of these lands have never ceded their sovereignty.

When the Crown invaded these shores, they planted their flag and said that they were sovereigns. The King over there in another country says he is sovereign of these lands. How is that possible? How does someone come and knock on your door—in fact, not even knock; they just barge right in—and take you and your family out of your home and say, 'Good luck; do your best; this is ours now, and we're going to rape and pillage every part of this continent to make ourselves very wealthy for our future generations', not First Peoples' future generations. The only inheritance we have in this country is misery, genocide and a continued war on our people—230 years of a war and no treaty.

We need steps to treaty. This government promised. They said they would do treaty. The Minister for Indigenous Australians herself said we can do everything together. But are we seeing that? No. Labor are too scared of treaty, just like Hawke couldn't get it over the line, or Keating. And do you think they'll do it again?