The Traditional Owners of this land are those who identify as
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples.

Sovereignty was never ceded.

ANTAR pays respect to Elders past, present, and emerging through our dedicated advocacy for First Nations Peoples’ justice and rights.

ANTAR acknowledges the responsibility of committing to a truth-telling process that promotes an honest and respectful path forward for future generations to build upon.

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Petition to support a Truth & Justice Commission Make a Submission
Sign the Petition

Make a Submission

In preparing a submission, you can and should write from the heart – tell the Parliamentary Committee why you support the establishment of a national Truth and Justice Commission.

This is an opportunity to use your unique voice to demonstrate to the Government that there are millions of people in Australia who believe that we have to face the truths of our nation’s founding as well as its ongoing injustices.

You can do this in your own words, but here are some phrases you may want to consider, incorporate or build on (feel free to copy and paste them):

  • The Albanese Government pledged to implement the Uluru Statement in full. The creation of a national Truth and Justice Commission would be an important step toward ensuring this commitment is not broken.
  • Community-led truth-telling has been underway for many decades across the continent, often led by First Nations Peoples. A national Truth and Justice Commission backed by the Government would signal strong leadership and create greater awareness of these crucial community-led local truth processes, as well as support for state and territory-led truth processes.
  • Truth-telling is an ongoing shared and active process between First Nations Peoples and non-Indigenous Australians that must be more than First Nations Peoples revisiting their trauma; this means the majority of Australians have a responsibility to engage in truth-listening to confront the ways in which the settler colonial system continues to benefit non-Indigenous peoples at the expense of First Nations rights.
  • A national Truth and Justice Commission must operate alongside and as part of treaty readiness, with the intention to engage in national-level agreement making that rebalances power relations – without structural change, a truth-telling process risks becoming performative.
  • The Government has not adequately listened to and acted on previous landmark truth-telling processes. The establishment of a national Truth and Justice Commission must include a commitment to meaningful action that ensures First Nations communities can exercise their right to self-determination. It is beyond time for governments to relinquish control and to hand meaningful decision-making power back to First Nations communities, where it belongs.
  • Truth-telling should be strengths-based and invite non-Indigenous Australians to consider how First Nations perspectives, culture and connection to Country could play a more central role in the way Australia operates.

Other tips:

  • Don’t be afraid to use your opinion, lived experience and personal perspective to share why this matters to you;
  • Feel free to draw on international examples, best practice and/or research you’ve come across;
  • You’re welcome to make recommendations/suggestions to the Committee;
  • If you’d prefer your submission be kept private, you can ask that it be treated as Confidential.

Make your submission here.

Please note: you will need to create a Parliament of Australia account in order to lodge your submission online – it is free and quick to do so here.

If you’d like to follow a template in writing your submission, feel free to use ours below.

Submission Template

Joint Standing Committee on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs
PO Box 6021
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600

Inquiry into Truth and Justice Commission Bill 2024

Dear Committee Secretariat,

My name is [insert name] and I live on [insert First Nations Country].

  • You can include any other relevant information about yourself here, including why you care about this issue.

For decades, First Nations Peoples in Australia have called for truth-telling processes to lay a foundation of truth about our shared history, and as a vehicle toward justice and greater self-determination for their communities.

I wholeheartedly support the Truth and Justice Commission Bill 2024 which would establish a national Truth and Justice Commission to inquire into and make recommendations to Parliament on particular matters relating to historic and ongoing injustices against First Peoples in Australia and the impacts of these injustices on First Peoples.

  • Include your reasons for supporting a Truth and Justice Commission here. You can speak from the heart, and/or copy and paste quotes from our content above;
  • You can also speak to how you think the Commission should be structured and/or operate, and what you think its responsibilities should be;
  • You might also want to list or include elements of historical processes of colonisation and/or contemporary injustices that you believe a truth-telling process should pay attention to.

Truth-telling is a shared and active process between everyday Australians in which First Nations Peoples and non-Indigenous Australians engage as equal partners. It calls on non-Indigenous Australians to go further than passively witnessing testimony of violation or trauma by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, and to engage in a practice of truth-listening that creates substantive and transformative change.

Truth-telling is about collective accountability and honesty, so we don’t make the same mistakes again. There have been several major truth-telling opportunities in our history, from the 1997 Bringing Them Home Report to the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, that have not been adequately acted on by the Government. In light of this, a national truth-telling process must be accompanied by structural change in the form of treaty-making, whereby First Nations communities can exercise their right to self-determination and make decisions that are best for their peoples, communities and futures. It is beyond time for governments to relinquish control and to hand meaningful decision-making power back to First Nations communities, where it belongs.

The establishment of a national Truth and Justice Commission would also complement and support the many community-led truth telling processes that are underway at a local level, and encourage these place-based processes to be established in other communities. It has been well established that many First Nations Peoples believe that engaging in these local, community-led truth-telling processes with their non-Indigenous neighbours and community members will be a powerful and transformative process that can change how individuals see each other, and develop greater collective responsibility and social cohesion.

It is critical that a national Truth and Justice process be strengths-based. Truth-telling can be a powerful expression of First Nations identity and self-determination, and has the potential to counter stereotypes of First Nations communities as disempowered by highlighting their strengths and resistance. In this way, a national truth-telling process should centre and increase public awareness of First Nations culture, community and connection to Country so that these can play a more central role in contemporary Australia.

I thank the Committee for the opportunity to contribute to this Inquiry and sincerely hope the points I have raised will be considered.

Insert [Your full name – You can also include your contact information should the Committee have further questions].

Make your submission here.

Please note: you will need to create a Parliament of Australia account in order to lodge your submission online – it is free and quick to do so here.