Thorpe is reiterating her calls for a national Truth-telling Commission, a recommitment to Treaty and urgent national action on the incarceration and deaths in custody crisis, and child removals.

Quotes attributable to Lidia Thorpe, Gunnai, Gunditjmara and Djab Wurrung independent Victorian Senator:

"As predicted, the Prime Minister is rocking up to Garma for a selfie and a smoking ceremony, but with nothing meaningful to deliver.

"We know about greenwashing and pinkwashing — Albanese’s annual excursion to Garma has just become an exercise in optics, an attempt to blackwash the Labor Party. 

"First Peoples’ song, dance and culture are not props for Albanese to use to launder his dodgy reputation while he offers beads and trinkets.

"Cash for the corporations and a few utes are crumbs on the table while so many of our people are dying in custody, and governments continue to steal and jail our children at record rates.

"Garma was born out of the Hawke Labor Government’s betrayal on Treaty — and today, Albanese continues that Labor legacy after breaking the same promise. We’ve seen no mention of these pillars of the Uluru Statement that Labor committed to.

"It’s time for Albanese to recommit to federal Truth-Telling and Treaty. 

"This week we reached the grim milestone of over 600 Black deaths in custody since the 1991 Royal Commission. The latest Closing the Gap figures should have triggered a national reckoning.

"Yet all Labor can talk about is vague ‘economic empowerment’.

"Child stealing, jailing, deaths in custody and suicides are the most fundamental injustices being perpetrated against First Peoples.

"And still — no vision, no plan, no interest in taking action on this. Albanese is watching on as another generation of our children is being stolen and caged.

"We know there is plenty this government can do, here and now.

"If states are breaching their Closing the Gap targets — especially on incarceration and child removals — there must be real consequences. Albanese should start by withholding federal funding to the NT Police and calling a National Cabinet meeting on deaths in custody and child jailing.

"The Commonwealth has the power to legislate national minimum standards across the criminal legal system. It must act now.

"We also need real reinvestment into what works: community-controlled solutions, culturally safe bail supports, and properly funded legal help.

"This government must stop the state violence being committed against us in every jurisdiction across the continent. 

"Stop the spin. Stop the blackwashing and the gaslighting. Stop the violence being committed against us. Listen to our communities and let us lead."

Further Detail – Senator Thorpe's justice policy priorities:

Alongside a federal Truth-telling commission and a recommitment to Treaty, Senator Thorpe is calling on the Albanese Government to take real action to address the incarceration crisis. Her priorities include:

• A national oversight body to monitor and drive the implementation of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody and the Bringing Them Home report.

• A framework of penalties for states and territories that breach Closing the Gap targets — particularly where states enact policies that drive the criminalisation and incarceration of First Peoples.

• An urgent National Cabinet meeting on deaths in custody and youth incarceration.

• National minimum standards for prisons and youth justice, aligned with UNDRIP, OPCAT, CPRD, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and other relevant international human rights instruments. These standards would include the removal of hanging points; banning spit hoods, solitary confinement, and shackling during childbirth and end-of-life care; and preventing children being jailed in police watch houses.

• Bail reform: Legislate Pocum’s Law as a minimum standard nationwide, and invest in community-controlled bail support services, including culturally safe bail accommodation for children.

• Community-led first responders: Expand First Nations-led crisis response services to reduce police contact and incarceration.

• Real justice reinvestment: Scale up and properly fund justice reinvestment, with long-term, flexible funding directed to communities.

• Healthcare in prisons: Guarantee equitable access healthcare in custody, including Medicare, PBS medicines, disability supports, and culturally safe care in custody. Resource First Nations Community-controlled health organisations (ACCHOs)  to deliver prison healthcare and improve access to medicines. Improve disability screening for people in contact with the criminal legal system.

• Increased and sustained funding for legal assistance services, to ensure First Peoples can access justice.