The Joint Standing Committee on the Northern Australia Inquiry into Juukan Gorge have today released a multiparty majority interim report with a range of recommendations including that Rio Tinto negotiate a restitution package for the destruction of the Juukan rock shelters with the traditional owners, the Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura peoples (PKKP) and ensure full reconstruction of the Junkanoo rock shelters.

After urging Treaty be put back on the national agenda as recently as her first speech to the Senate last week, Australian Greens First Nations spokesperson Senator Lidia Thorpe today welcomed a motion from Senator Dodson to establish a Joint Select Committee to inquire into and report on the truth telling and treaty making elements of Makarrata.

“This country needs truth-telling. We need justice. First Nations peoples have called for decades for a treaty to be realised in this country,” Senator Thorpe said today.

Greens Senator Lidia Thorpe shares the disappointment of Aboriginal communities and peak bodies of the lack of funding for First Nations in the 2020-21 Budget, in particular the lack of funding to achieve Closing the Gap strategy.

“I’ve been in the senate for one day and this Budget has been a clear example of how this government treats the  First People of this country,” said Senator Thorpe, Greens First Nations spokesperson.

The Greens say that the resignation of Rio CEO Mr Jacques is a good sign that the company is taking some responsibility for the Juukan Gorge disaster but there needs to be a cultural shift in the entire company and across the mining industry.
 
This cannot just be a symbolic gesture, there is still a lot of work to do, Greens Senator for Western Australia Senator Rachel Siewert said. 
 

Leader of the Australian Greens, Adam Bandt, has today announced a portfolio redistribution that will see Lidia Thorpe and Mehreen Faruqi take on a new anti-racism strategy intended to counter Australia’s growing tide of far right nationalism and tackle systemic racism. 

The move comes as Lidia Thorpe attends her first Greens Party Room meeting as a Senator this Wednesday and ahead of a fuller redistribution of portfolios by Adam Bandt on Thursday.

Gunnai and Gunditjmara woman, Senator Lidia Thorpe, is thrilled to have been handed the responsibility of the First Nations portfolio in the Greens reshuffle.

“I’m very proud to be the first Aboriginal Senator for Victoria and to take on the First Nations portfolio. There is so much work to be continued,” she said.

“I come from a long line of strong Aboriginal women who taught me to stand up for what’s right and to never let injustice and racism beat you down. If you want change, you have to fight for it.”

Leader of the Australian Greens Adam Bandt MP and DjabWurrung traditional owner Lidia Thorpe have today slammed the Environment Minister’s failure to protect the DjabWurrung birthing trees.

The Environment Minister’s assessment of the trees under the ATSIHP Act comes after years of mass community protest against the destruction, by traditional owners and the broader community.

Scott Morrison’s refusal to make First Nations deaths in custody a standing agenda item at National Cabinet shows his words to be hollow, the Greens have said, pushing for it to become a standing agenda item for state and federal leaders with strict timeframes to reform the country’s criminal laws. 
 
“The Prime Minister can give a million passionate speeches in parliament about deaths in custody, but while he refuses to take action they’re nothing more than crocodile tears," Australian Greens Leader, Adam Bandt said today.
 

Senator FARUQI (New South Wales) (16:03): I ask that general business notice of motion No. 604, standing in my name and the names of Senator Siewert and Senator Di Natale, related to Black Lives Matter and First Nation people be taken as a formal motion.

The PRESIDENT: An objection has been noted, so that has been denied.