The chair of Queensland’s Truth-Telling and Healing inquiry has told the state government the inquiry will continue. A month ago, the new LNP government abruptly halted the inquiry’s public hearings and the premier, David Crisafulli, publicly committed to repealing the legislation before the year is out. The head of the inquiry, Joshua Creamer, says despite many attempts, his communication with the government has been limited.
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00There's been very little communication but for a proposed meeting that was indefinitely
00:08postponed.
00:10Now I think we've all come to realise over the last 23 days that we're all governed by
00:13the rule of law and if you want to dismantle a functioning and effective inquiry, you have
00:18to comply with the law.
00:20And as it stands, the Path to Treaty Act is the law, and under the Path to Treaty Act
00:24myself and other members, we have certain responsibilities, our duties and functions.
00:30And given the inability of the government to be able to move swiftly, we've decided
00:34to recommence the work of the inquiry.
00:38There will be some limitations to that.
00:40The plan going forward is obviously to open our submissions portal, and that is open today.
00:46Our submissions portal will be open at least until early January at this stage, and at
00:51the end of that juncture we're proposing to produce a report.
00:55It is obvious that the inquiry will not get the opportunity to run out its statutory term
01:01of three years, but nevertheless it's likely to be now several months before the government
01:06can actually do something about repealing that legislation.
01:10I also have responsibilities under the Path to Treaty Act for the efficient and effective
01:15use of those resources that the inquiry has.
01:18Those resources include our staff, which are provided to support the inquiry by the
01:22department.
01:24Taking those things into consideration, I think it's important that we utilise our
01:27resources effectively over the next coming months, and as I say, the staff will be focused
01:32on engaging with key organisations, institutions, working through the submissions, and then
01:38producing a report which, under the Act, has to be provided to the Minister and will be
01:43tabled in Parliament.