Funds originally allocated for Queensland’s scrapped Truth-telling and Healing Inquiry will be partly used for new projects in remote Indigenous communities.
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00:00The Queensland Path to Treaty Act was established by the then Labor government here in Queensland
00:07back in 2023, and a key part of that was establishing a Truth and Healing Inquiry here in Brisbane.
00:16Now that inquiry ran for about three months late last year, at the same time as we had
00:21a state election campaign.
00:23Now as part of that campaign, the Liberal National Party opposition vowed to scrap both
00:27the Act and the inquiry, saying the $108 million that had been set aside by Labor could
00:34be better spent on more practical measures to close the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous
00:40people here in Queensland.
00:43Now shortly after winning power late last year, the LNP made good on that promise, and
00:47yesterday we learned how the first stage of money would be spent on Aboriginal communities.
00:53Yesterday we learned that $19 million would be set aside, $8 million a piece on communities
00:59on Cape York, that's Arrokoon and Kalinyama, to establish better water supplies in those
01:04communities, and $3 million for the town of Sherburgh to create better youth services.
01:11Now Aboriginal people have responded saying that they're fantastic initiatives, and we
01:14need both better water supplies on Cape York, and also youth services in Sherburgh, but
01:21their response is, well why can't we have both?
01:24We need to hear from Aboriginal people about how they've been affected by state government
01:28policies in the past, and also how we can make better policies going forward to help
01:33address the gap.
01:35Some people were able to share those stories with the very short inquiry, they're disappointed
01:40that that won't go further, and many people have told the ABC they're very disappointed
01:44they won't be able to share their stories at all.
01:46Like I say, we've seen the first lot of money go towards that community, and in the short
01:50term, that's very welcome.