Truth-telling subs re-open as inquiry waits for clarity

Keira Jenkins |

Truth-telling inquiry chair Joshua Creamer is still waiting on a meeting with the Qld premier.
Truth-telling inquiry chair Joshua Creamer is still waiting on a meeting with the Qld premier.

Submissions to Queensland’s truth-telling and healing process have re-opened, with the inquiry’s chair saying his team can’t “sit around and wait” for the government to repeal the legislation.

Inquiry chair Joshua Creamer told the media on Friday he had made six requests for an urgent meeting with the premier, the Indigenous affairs minister or the director-general of the department.

The inquiry recently paused its work while requesting to meet with the government for clarity on the future of the process.

A meeting scheduled between the inquiry and Indigenous Affairs Minister Fiona Simpson was postponed, and Mr Creamer said he’d received “very little communication” from the government.

He said there had been no attempts from the government to schedule another meeting and the minister had avoided him at an event on Thursday.

“I saw the minister at the women’s legal service breakfast yesterday and she ran away from me,” Mr Creamer said.

“She certainly wasn’t coming up to me for a chat. She saw me and went the other way.”

Deputy Premier Jarrod Blejie said Mr Creamer had asked the government some “legitimate questions” which Ms Simpson had sought advice on.

“I’ve got all confidence that a meeting will take place but the inquiry asks various questions, the minister is getting the answers to those questions and she wants those answers before she meets with the inquiry chair,” Mr Blejie said.

Mr Creamer said it had been 23 days since David Crisafulli had announced in a press conference the inquiry would not be allowed to continue its work.

He acknowledged the government could potentially repeal the legislation when the parliament returned on November 26.

But he said he did not want his team “sitting around, doing nothing” while they wait for clarity.

“I don’t know whether they’d be able to have that repeal bill come in force before Christmas,” he said.

“We certainly can’t sit around here for months and months and months waiting for them to do something.

David Crisafulli
After his election win, David Crisafulli was quick to announce the truth-telling inquiry would end. (Darren England/AAP PHOTOS)

“We’ve got a responsibility as members under the act, and I’ve got responsibilities in terms of effective and efficient use of resources.”

While submissions have re-opened, Mr Creamer said the inquiry was not planning to hold truth-telling sessions or hearings.

Instead submissions would inform a report the inquiry team planned to release in January.

The inquiry recently cancelled truth-telling sessions in Cherbourg, and on Stradbroke Island, and Mr Creamer said there had been a lot of hurt felt in those communities.

“Even just in Cherbourg, for example … we prepared 40 witnesses that would spend at least two or three hours each telling their evidence,” he said.

“That’s a big body of evidence from one community and the depth and the detail of that history will be lost, and really the opportunity for Queensland to understand its history will be lost by shelving the inquiry.”

AAP