Indigenous Queenslanders are in “double mourning” after the state’s pathway to treaty lost bipartisan support in the same week that it voted overwhelmingly against the voice, a community leader has said.
The Bindal elder and Indigenous activist Gracelyn Smallwood said the Liberal National party’s decision to abandon support for a treaty was “the biggest disappointment”.
Many First Nations leaders called for a week of silence and for flags to be flown at half mast after the voice to parliament referendum failed on the weekend.
“We’re in deep mourning this week, double mourning today about the conservatives [in] government reneging on their support for the treaty,” Smallwood said.
“They’ve reneged, just like they reneged on the voice. Nothing surprises me.”
The Path to Treaty Act 2023, which passed the Queensland parliament in May with bipartisan support, established a three-year “truth-telling and healing inquiry”, a framework for treaty negotiations and a body called First Nations Treaty Institute. The inquiry is due to begin next year.
The Liberal National party leader, David Crisafulli, voted for the legislation, as did all members of his party. But he changed his mind after 69% of Queenslanders voted no in the referendum.
Crisafulli told media on Wednesday that the party would repeal the legislation if they won next year’s election.
“It’s my view that to continue down the path to treaty would cause further division at a time when Queensland needs unity,” he said.
In a statement issued to the Australian on behalf of Queensland’s 17 Indigenous local government bodies, the Lockhart River mayor, Wayne Butcher, and the Kowanyama mayor, Robbie Sands, called on Crisafulli to reconsider his position.
“This should be a time of healing. Not a time to further kick us while we are down,” they said.
“That you have made this decision without any consultation with ourselves and our fellow leaders is a further blow.”
“We too are Queenslanders. We matter.”
The Queensland process is designed to develop multiple treaties with individual groups.
Mithika Aboriginal Corporation general manager, Josh Gorringe, said their group had hoped to get access to land in any treaty, to be able to run cultural programs for at-risk young people.
The group is struggling to achieve financial self-sufficiency because it cannot develop land it manages under native title for commercial purposes. The Mithika were granted just 97 hectares of freehold land in Betoota.
“Ninety-seven hectares, that doesn’t do a hell of a lot. You can run about three nanny goats on it,” he said.
Gorringe said the ultimate aim of a treaty was greater self-determination for Indigenous people. If the treaty process failed again it would be “just a kick in the guts”, he said.
“It happens time and time again to us. We get promised the world and [they say], ‘we’re going to change this, and we’re going to change that,’ and then we become a political football.
“It’s not the first time it’s happened. The voice … became a political football so politicians can make themselves feel better. And all it’s done for Indigenous people has brought up a lot, a lot of hurt and a lot of disappointment again.”
The premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, refused to recommit to negotiating treaty deals on Thursday, indicating that the next step in the treaty process would be truth-telling.
She said any treaty would be a “long way off” and require “bipartisan support” to go ahead. She was doubtful reparation payments would be included.
Guardian Australia understands Palaszczuk’s comments immediately sparked internal tension and confusion within the party.
Senior Labor sources said there were a number of MPs in the party’s left faction who might reconsider running in next year’s election if the premier did not stand by her commitment to a path to treaty.
They said the premier was likely “spooked” by the referendum result and withdrawal of Crisafulli’s support.
Labor called an urgent caucus meeting for MPs on Thursday afternoon to talk through the issue.
Queensland’s human rights commissioner, Scott McDougall, said abandoning the path to treaty “risks throwing away decades of work toward reconciliation”.
“Now is not the time for rash decision-making but rather a time for proper reflection, for consultation, and for some deep listening to community,” he said.
“Racing to interpret the referendum results as an overall rejection of reconciliation and treaty is dangerous and shortsighted.”
