Queensland’s human rights commissioner has blasted the state government’s “hostile”, “assimilationist” approach to First Nations people in a speech at Parliament House.
Scott McDougall, Queensland’s first-ever human rights commissioner, has consistently criticised both sides of politics over a range of issues, particularly the state’s youth law and order crackdown. His seven-year term in the role comes to an end next month.
In Monday night’s speech, McDougall took particular aim at the Liberal National party government’s strained relations with the traditional owners.
The first act of premier David Crisafulli’s new government was to repeal legislation establishing a state truth-telling and healing inquiry. McDougall described the move as “one of the biggest steps backwards” on the road towards reconciliation.
“In Queensland, we are not walking together towards reconciliation – our non-Indigenous leaders are walking us backwards,” he said.
McDougall also pointed to the LNP’s headline adult crime, adult time laws, which the government admits will have a disproportionate effect on Indigenous children and violate the state’s Human Rights Act.
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He also criticised decisions to exclude First Nations representatives from the Organising Committee for the Olympic Games, abandon the construction of a First Nations Cultural Centre in Queensland and reject the recommended naming of the new QPAC theatre after one of Australia’s greatest poets, Oodgeroo Noonuccal.
“One can only wonder what the International Olympic Committee were thinking when they were told that the Pathway to Treaty was extinguished by the Pathway to the Olympics. What a terrible message to send to the international community – let alone to Queensland’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people,” McDougall said.
“One could be left wondering how the approach of this government could be seen as anything other than hostile when considering this and other decisions it has recently made against the interests of First Nations people.”
McDougall called for government to “radically reset its relationship with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities”, requiring an “almost immediate 180-degree turnaround” on its current policy trajectory.
He particularly took aim at the premier’s often-repeated statement during the debate over the future of the truth-telling and healing commission that he had spoken with the Palm Island mayor about it.
“Policies, whether official or otherwise, of ignoring the right of First Nations’ participation in decision-making or, for example, seeking to engage only with the mayors of Aboriginal shire councils, are assimilationist and take us back to the 1950s,” he said.
The state government has been contacted for comment.
McDougall also imagined a “utopian future” with watch houses empty of children, and detention centres converted to serve as Tafe colleges.
The commissioner’s role is legislated under Queensland’s Human Rights Act, which was passed in 2019. McDougall’s replacement has yet to be announced.
In May, the state’s human rights record was criticised by the UN special rapporteur on torture.
It came after Crisafulli in April criticised the UN for interfering in local politics, saying “this place will govern its laws”.
“This place will determine how we keep Queenslanders safe, and this place will be accountable to Queenslanders, not United Nations boffins,” the premier said.
