Chief Executive of the Yoorrook Justice Commission & former Executive Director of the Human Rights Law Centre.
Hugh’s award citation reads:
“For his leadership of the Yoorrook Justice Commission, Victoria’s formal truth-telling inquiry and the first of its kind in Australia. It was set up by the First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria and the Victorian Government to report truthfully and fearlessly on the colonial past, and to reveal the unbroken line from past injustices to present day policy failures and attitudes that cause ongoing harm to First Peoples in Victoria.
For his guidance of the process of consultation with Government, with individuals, with organisations, and with representatives of communities.
For the Commission’s landmark recommendations for reform of the justice and child protection systems, its clarification and strengthening of the “Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act”, and for its preparation of the way to a treaty in Victoria.
For the contributions that Hugh has made throughout his career to empowering marginalised communities and to promoting legal reform and respect for human rights. “
Editor’s note: The following is an abridged version of Hugh’s acceptance speech at the EA Democracy Award Dinner November 26th 2023.
Hugh’s award citation reads:
“For his leadership of the Yoorrook Justice Commission, Victoria’s formal truth-telling inquiry and the first of its kind in Australia. It was set up by the First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria and the Victorian Government to report truthfully and fearlessly on the colonial past, and to reveal the unbroken line from past injustices to present day policy failures and attitudes that cause ongoing harm to First Peoples in Victoria.
For his guidance of the process of consultation with Government, with individuals, with organisations, and with representatives of communities.
For the Commission’s landmark recommendations for reform of the justice and child protection systems, its clarification and strengthening of the “Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act”, and for its preparation of the way to a treaty in Victoria.
For the contributions that Hugh has made throughout his career to empowering marginalised communities and to promoting legal reform and respect for human rights. “
Editor’s note: The following is an abridged version of Hugh’s acceptance speech at the EA Democracy Award Dinner November 26th 2023.
A BETTER AUSTRALIA FOR ALL – HUGH DE KRETSER.
“We often take our democracy for granted. There’s a complacency about it. The work of Eureka Australia, in promoting the importance of democracy and in connecting the past to the present, is critically important.
On a world scale we have a reasonably successful democracy, with free and fair elections, and peaceful transfer of power. Observing other democracies, even the United States’ recent experience with Trump, tells us we should not take democracy for granted. The storming of the capital in Washington …. shows us that democracy does not start and end on election day. The ingredients of a healthy democracy include press freedom, protest rights, freedom of speech, freedom of association, open government, independent and properly resourced courts, a robust and healthy civil society, a rule of law, and more.
In 2019 a Civicus global review of world democracies downgraded Australia’s democracy to ‘narrowed’, at 72%, below New Zealand and Canada who are ranked in the 80’s. This was due to … a swathe of anti protest laws across the country, particularly targeted at environmental and animal rights protests, and driven largely by vested corporate interests. (At the Human Rights Law Centre) We saw press freedoms undermined with meta data laws that allowed law enforcement to access previously protected communication information from whistle blowers. We documented a much more hostile attitude towards whistle blowers and the journalists who worked with them which Bernard Collaery’s witness K story has highlighted in his presentation tonight. When it comes to war crimes in Afghanistan, by Australian military, the first person to be prosecuted in these war crimes, is the person who blew the whistle on them! We have also seen the improper invocation of national security when it comes to refugee rights and environmental activism. There is also the continued poor compliance by government with freedom of information laws. In civil society we have seen repeated attacks on charities and their ability to speak out about the issues they work on. We saw, particularly under the Morrison Government, an intensification of those funding levers, to pressure charities, to pressure society to remain silent about the issues that were uncomfortable for government. At its worst we saw explicit gag clauses in funding contracts that said you must not speak up about these issues without the approval of government.
Where are we now?
The high court decided that Tasmania’s anti protest laws were unconstitutional when Bob Brown undertook a peaceful environmental protest and successfully challenged their legality. The Albanese Government, to its credit, has improved failing federal whistle blowing laws…and has stopped the persecution of Bernard Collaery, David McBride, and others. The Human Rights Centre has established support for prospective whistle blowers so that they have the same support and expertise as government has. We continue to have free and fair elections in Australia but there are constant tensions around the protection of our rights to vote. The Eureka advocacy led to improvements in democratic reforms for white men, but not for women, not for aboriginal people, not for Chinese, not for Afghans, not for others who were in this country. The process of democracy is an ongoing one, with advances and regresses. There has been a push from conservative governments to introduce Voter ID which appears like a good idea, but, as has been shown in the US, is a way to suppress the right to vote for those who are less likely to carry the ID with them: the homeless, aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders and others, and whose vote is more likely not to support a conservative government. During Covid we advocated for a phone voting system to allow those isolating to still place their vote. This was successfully implemented and worked pretty well (applause). We need to remain vigilant on voting rights, for those in remote communities, and in prison, Australians overseas. We are also working to be vigilant about political donations and undue influence on politicians. Australian democracy shouldn’t (just) be available to people with the best bank balance. We need people to have equal access to inform and influence policy through advocacy, through protest and the like. We need lobbying reform and political donation reform. Queensland has actually done some good work around those laws. We want a democracy where government always acts in the public interest, where our policies and institutions promote fairness and equality, and where people and communities have the power to address injustice.
The second part of my talk is about how democracy has worked in this country for First Peoples. The history of how democracy has played out in this country is a very sad history. But it is one we can actually change, and we are on a pathway to change in Victoria. The decades of imported British democracy after colonisation forced first peoples off their land, destroyed their economy and way of life, - it is probably my Irish ancestors on my mother’s side who worked on the land we took from the Gunditjmara peoples of the Western district. So, as Paul Keating said: “We destroyed their way of life”.
fWe brought the disease and alcohol. We perpetrated the sexual violence. We concentrated first peoples onto missions where their language and culture was suppressed . We took their children from their families and we actively pursued policies to erase First Peoples, all under an assumption that there was a hierarchy of races and whites were supreme. There was no treaty, except for Batman’s sham treaty here on Merri Creek. There was no treaty. Aboriginal people never ceded sovereignty. If you read up on Eureka and the aboriginal history of Eureka, the discovery of gold in Victoria accelerated the destruction of Aboriginal culture and way of life. Victoria’s population increased from 80,000 in the 1850’s, to around half a million by ten years later. Massive population rise accelerated the destruction of First People’s way of life. Democracy served Aboriginal people badly. It was only through generations and decades of reform, of advocacy and organising that progress has been made. We should celebrate this progress. Just as we celebrate Eureka, the Charter, the incredible courage and the reforms that came from the Eureka Stockade, we should celebrate William Barak’s march to Parliament here, demanding justice for his people, for proper land management for his people. We should celebrate the day of mourning protests where, while the rest of Australia was celebrating 150 years of colonisation, William Cooper and Jack Patten led the Yoorta Yoorta people up to the town hall in Sydney in 1938 , for the day of mourning. Doug Nicholson and the establishment of the Aboriginal Advancement League. In 1962 the federal electoral act was finally amended to give all Australian Aboriginals the right to vote. In 1967 the successful referendum gave First Peoples the right to be included in the census, and for legislation to be made to benefit their interests. Under the Rudd government Australia changed its position and became a signatory on the 2009 United Nations declaration on the rights of indigenous people. 1971 saw the first Aboriginal Federal MP, Neville Bonner who in 1975/6 brought a motion to the Senate, for compensation for the injustice of taking Aboriginal land, which was passed by the Senate. It’s incredible to think of a Liberal Aboriginal Senator, bringing this motion to the Senate and having it passed by the Senate! While Australian democracy hasn’t served Aboriginal people well, there is progress and I hope you are proud of what’s happening in Victoria. It’s all about self-determination as a concept in response to colonialism. Aboriginal people have taken up this concept and said we are not going to challenge the sovereignty over this territory, but within this territory we should have the right to a form of self-determination. Whether it’s about land, or culture or education, we should have the right to, as it says in the Uluru statement: voice, treaty and truth. At the Victorian level we are getting on with that. Since 2019 we have had the First People’s Assembly of Victoria. An elected body of 32 members which is operating really effectively. As you may know, my dad was Governor of Victoria, and it is difficult for me to go into Parliament and see the wealth which was taken from Aboriginal land – the ballroom for example, is larger than the ballroom at Buckingham Palace – and when you contrast what was happening for Aboriginal people when this wealth was taken from their land, it underscores the injustice. The Assembly has been set up to negotiate a treaty with the Victorian government. The negotiation will begin next year. We have set up a Treaty Authority, as an independent umpire, and an Aboriginal truth telling mechanism advocated for unrelentingly by Aboriginal people: the Yoorrook Justice Commission , modelled on global truth and reconciliation initiatives, which I am chairing. The idea is that you have a truth telling which allows the stories of human rights violations to be told, then you make recommendations and build a new relationship to move forward. South Africa, Timor Leste, Kenya, Canada have had similar initiatives. Four of the five Commissioners are Aboriginals, three are Victorian traditional owners. 48 of our staff are Aboriginal. Our legal team is led by the most senior Aboriginal barrister in the country, Tony McEvoy. We are trying to tell the truth of the injustice against first people, and to make recommendations. We have looked at Child protection and criminal justice. Now we are examining land justice . Next is Health, Education and Housing and we are around until June 2025. It’s only a small task, looking at history since colonisation ! But it is important work. We will then make recommendations about truth telling after this work. We know, from the Northern Territory experience, of the dangers of not following up on this work, and from the plethora of enquiries that have gone before us, where Aboriginal People have told their stories and nothing has been done. The Royal Commission into Aboriginal deaths in custody, 32 years ago, can be put into that context. The number one thing we need to do is to stop locking up Aboriginal people in such high rates. Instead we have seen Aboriginal incarceration rates sky rocket. Particularly in the last 10 years. That’s why we have a responsibility to make sure this isn’t just another enquiry on the shelf, but that its findings are actually implemented. I have a confidence that this enquiry will be implemented because on the first day of the enquiry, Aunty Joan Evans, stolen generations survivor and advocate told her story and the state government of the time, Premier Dan Andrews made a commitment to overhaul the laws and gave more power to the Aboriginal people over their own families than has ever been given. It’s up to everyone to hold the government accountable to that commitment.
I will conclude by examining the truth and how Eureka Australia, in its determination to link the past with the present , is redressing the balance. When I went to school the four (sports) houses at my school were: Batman, who murdered aboriginal people, Henty who stole land in 1834 and said aboriginal people should be shot, one of his managers gave aboriginal people poisoned flour, Faulkner, who was worse than Batman, and Flinders, who was an excellent sailor. I emailed my primary school late last year and they said they were very proud they had just changed the houses to Goldstein, the famous suffragette and women’s rights advocate, Freeman , for Kathy Freeman, (they) kept Flinders and added Mabo, to acknowledge Eddie Mabo. (Applause). It’s a small thing and way overdue, thank God they changed it. I will end by saying , despite the set back in the recent referendum, I think about what’s happening in Victoria, that my two children are receiving a much better education about First Nation’s people than I got, but I am also realistic about the need to continue our fight. Our democracy is only as good as we make it. I think what we have heard tonight is that we cannot take it for granted. That it is made up of essential elements: press freedom, freedom of association, freedom of expression, protection of whistle blowers standing up for justice, organising and protest rights. But, in the context of my own work, for Australian democracy to serve its own community, we need to recognise the first peoples of this land and recognise their place in it. Their self determination must be a key component of Australia’s democracy. For all Australians, for a better future. “
Hugh De Kretser, EA Democracy Awardee 2023
On a world scale we have a reasonably successful democracy, with free and fair elections, and peaceful transfer of power. Observing other democracies, even the United States’ recent experience with Trump, tells us we should not take democracy for granted. The storming of the capital in Washington …. shows us that democracy does not start and end on election day. The ingredients of a healthy democracy include press freedom, protest rights, freedom of speech, freedom of association, open government, independent and properly resourced courts, a robust and healthy civil society, a rule of law, and more.
In 2019 a Civicus global review of world democracies downgraded Australia’s democracy to ‘narrowed’, at 72%, below New Zealand and Canada who are ranked in the 80’s. This was due to … a swathe of anti protest laws across the country, particularly targeted at environmental and animal rights protests, and driven largely by vested corporate interests. (At the Human Rights Law Centre) We saw press freedoms undermined with meta data laws that allowed law enforcement to access previously protected communication information from whistle blowers. We documented a much more hostile attitude towards whistle blowers and the journalists who worked with them which Bernard Collaery’s witness K story has highlighted in his presentation tonight. When it comes to war crimes in Afghanistan, by Australian military, the first person to be prosecuted in these war crimes, is the person who blew the whistle on them! We have also seen the improper invocation of national security when it comes to refugee rights and environmental activism. There is also the continued poor compliance by government with freedom of information laws. In civil society we have seen repeated attacks on charities and their ability to speak out about the issues they work on. We saw, particularly under the Morrison Government, an intensification of those funding levers, to pressure charities, to pressure society to remain silent about the issues that were uncomfortable for government. At its worst we saw explicit gag clauses in funding contracts that said you must not speak up about these issues without the approval of government.
Where are we now?
The high court decided that Tasmania’s anti protest laws were unconstitutional when Bob Brown undertook a peaceful environmental protest and successfully challenged their legality. The Albanese Government, to its credit, has improved failing federal whistle blowing laws…and has stopped the persecution of Bernard Collaery, David McBride, and others. The Human Rights Centre has established support for prospective whistle blowers so that they have the same support and expertise as government has. We continue to have free and fair elections in Australia but there are constant tensions around the protection of our rights to vote. The Eureka advocacy led to improvements in democratic reforms for white men, but not for women, not for aboriginal people, not for Chinese, not for Afghans, not for others who were in this country. The process of democracy is an ongoing one, with advances and regresses. There has been a push from conservative governments to introduce Voter ID which appears like a good idea, but, as has been shown in the US, is a way to suppress the right to vote for those who are less likely to carry the ID with them: the homeless, aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders and others, and whose vote is more likely not to support a conservative government. During Covid we advocated for a phone voting system to allow those isolating to still place their vote. This was successfully implemented and worked pretty well (applause). We need to remain vigilant on voting rights, for those in remote communities, and in prison, Australians overseas. We are also working to be vigilant about political donations and undue influence on politicians. Australian democracy shouldn’t (just) be available to people with the best bank balance. We need people to have equal access to inform and influence policy through advocacy, through protest and the like. We need lobbying reform and political donation reform. Queensland has actually done some good work around those laws. We want a democracy where government always acts in the public interest, where our policies and institutions promote fairness and equality, and where people and communities have the power to address injustice.
The second part of my talk is about how democracy has worked in this country for First Peoples. The history of how democracy has played out in this country is a very sad history. But it is one we can actually change, and we are on a pathway to change in Victoria. The decades of imported British democracy after colonisation forced first peoples off their land, destroyed their economy and way of life, - it is probably my Irish ancestors on my mother’s side who worked on the land we took from the Gunditjmara peoples of the Western district. So, as Paul Keating said: “We destroyed their way of life”.
fWe brought the disease and alcohol. We perpetrated the sexual violence. We concentrated first peoples onto missions where their language and culture was suppressed . We took their children from their families and we actively pursued policies to erase First Peoples, all under an assumption that there was a hierarchy of races and whites were supreme. There was no treaty, except for Batman’s sham treaty here on Merri Creek. There was no treaty. Aboriginal people never ceded sovereignty. If you read up on Eureka and the aboriginal history of Eureka, the discovery of gold in Victoria accelerated the destruction of Aboriginal culture and way of life. Victoria’s population increased from 80,000 in the 1850’s, to around half a million by ten years later. Massive population rise accelerated the destruction of First People’s way of life. Democracy served Aboriginal people badly. It was only through generations and decades of reform, of advocacy and organising that progress has been made. We should celebrate this progress. Just as we celebrate Eureka, the Charter, the incredible courage and the reforms that came from the Eureka Stockade, we should celebrate William Barak’s march to Parliament here, demanding justice for his people, for proper land management for his people. We should celebrate the day of mourning protests where, while the rest of Australia was celebrating 150 years of colonisation, William Cooper and Jack Patten led the Yoorta Yoorta people up to the town hall in Sydney in 1938 , for the day of mourning. Doug Nicholson and the establishment of the Aboriginal Advancement League. In 1962 the federal electoral act was finally amended to give all Australian Aboriginals the right to vote. In 1967 the successful referendum gave First Peoples the right to be included in the census, and for legislation to be made to benefit their interests. Under the Rudd government Australia changed its position and became a signatory on the 2009 United Nations declaration on the rights of indigenous people. 1971 saw the first Aboriginal Federal MP, Neville Bonner who in 1975/6 brought a motion to the Senate, for compensation for the injustice of taking Aboriginal land, which was passed by the Senate. It’s incredible to think of a Liberal Aboriginal Senator, bringing this motion to the Senate and having it passed by the Senate! While Australian democracy hasn’t served Aboriginal people well, there is progress and I hope you are proud of what’s happening in Victoria. It’s all about self-determination as a concept in response to colonialism. Aboriginal people have taken up this concept and said we are not going to challenge the sovereignty over this territory, but within this territory we should have the right to a form of self-determination. Whether it’s about land, or culture or education, we should have the right to, as it says in the Uluru statement: voice, treaty and truth. At the Victorian level we are getting on with that. Since 2019 we have had the First People’s Assembly of Victoria. An elected body of 32 members which is operating really effectively. As you may know, my dad was Governor of Victoria, and it is difficult for me to go into Parliament and see the wealth which was taken from Aboriginal land – the ballroom for example, is larger than the ballroom at Buckingham Palace – and when you contrast what was happening for Aboriginal people when this wealth was taken from their land, it underscores the injustice. The Assembly has been set up to negotiate a treaty with the Victorian government. The negotiation will begin next year. We have set up a Treaty Authority, as an independent umpire, and an Aboriginal truth telling mechanism advocated for unrelentingly by Aboriginal people: the Yoorrook Justice Commission , modelled on global truth and reconciliation initiatives, which I am chairing. The idea is that you have a truth telling which allows the stories of human rights violations to be told, then you make recommendations and build a new relationship to move forward. South Africa, Timor Leste, Kenya, Canada have had similar initiatives. Four of the five Commissioners are Aboriginals, three are Victorian traditional owners. 48 of our staff are Aboriginal. Our legal team is led by the most senior Aboriginal barrister in the country, Tony McEvoy. We are trying to tell the truth of the injustice against first people, and to make recommendations. We have looked at Child protection and criminal justice. Now we are examining land justice . Next is Health, Education and Housing and we are around until June 2025. It’s only a small task, looking at history since colonisation ! But it is important work. We will then make recommendations about truth telling after this work. We know, from the Northern Territory experience, of the dangers of not following up on this work, and from the plethora of enquiries that have gone before us, where Aboriginal People have told their stories and nothing has been done. The Royal Commission into Aboriginal deaths in custody, 32 years ago, can be put into that context. The number one thing we need to do is to stop locking up Aboriginal people in such high rates. Instead we have seen Aboriginal incarceration rates sky rocket. Particularly in the last 10 years. That’s why we have a responsibility to make sure this isn’t just another enquiry on the shelf, but that its findings are actually implemented. I have a confidence that this enquiry will be implemented because on the first day of the enquiry, Aunty Joan Evans, stolen generations survivor and advocate told her story and the state government of the time, Premier Dan Andrews made a commitment to overhaul the laws and gave more power to the Aboriginal people over their own families than has ever been given. It’s up to everyone to hold the government accountable to that commitment.
I will conclude by examining the truth and how Eureka Australia, in its determination to link the past with the present , is redressing the balance. When I went to school the four (sports) houses at my school were: Batman, who murdered aboriginal people, Henty who stole land in 1834 and said aboriginal people should be shot, one of his managers gave aboriginal people poisoned flour, Faulkner, who was worse than Batman, and Flinders, who was an excellent sailor. I emailed my primary school late last year and they said they were very proud they had just changed the houses to Goldstein, the famous suffragette and women’s rights advocate, Freeman , for Kathy Freeman, (they) kept Flinders and added Mabo, to acknowledge Eddie Mabo. (Applause). It’s a small thing and way overdue, thank God they changed it. I will end by saying , despite the set back in the recent referendum, I think about what’s happening in Victoria, that my two children are receiving a much better education about First Nation’s people than I got, but I am also realistic about the need to continue our fight. Our democracy is only as good as we make it. I think what we have heard tonight is that we cannot take it for granted. That it is made up of essential elements: press freedom, freedom of association, freedom of expression, protection of whistle blowers standing up for justice, organising and protest rights. But, in the context of my own work, for Australian democracy to serve its own community, we need to recognise the first peoples of this land and recognise their place in it. Their self determination must be a key component of Australia’s democracy. For all Australians, for a better future. “
Hugh De Kretser, EA Democracy Awardee 2023
