A Prime Minister that denies this country’s true history is a Prime Minister unfit to lead.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has today refused to acknowledge 26 January as a Day of Mourning for First Nations people of this country, instead describing the First Fleet’s arrival “as not a particularly flash day for the people on those vessels.”

In a stark rebuke to Minister for Environment Sussan Ley, the Australian Greens today welcomed the Federal Court decision to uphold an appeal regarding the sacred Djab Wurrung trees.

Overnight the Federal Court overturned Minister Ley's decision to reject an appeal for the protection of six trees in the path of a highway upgrade on Djab Wurrung Country in western Victoria.

After urging Treaty be put back on the national agenda as recently as her first speech to the Senate last week, Australian Greens First Nations spokesperson Senator Lidia Thorpe today welcomed a motion from Senator Dodson to establish a Joint Select Committee to inquire into and report on the truth telling and treaty making elements of Makarrata.

“This country needs truth-telling. We need justice. First Nations peoples have called for decades for a treaty to be realised in this country,” Senator Thorpe said today.

In her first speech to the Senate, Greens Senator for Victoria Lidia Thorpe will bring Aboriginal people’s calls for Treaty to the national parliament. 

“To truly bring this country together, we must not only treat the symptoms of disadvantage, but the cause. We do this with a Treaty,” Senator Thorpe said today.

“First Nations people have long called for a Treaty to be negotiated in this country. In taking my seat as a Senator, I’m bringing those voices to this Parliament.

Greens Senator Lidia Thorpe shares the disappointment of Aboriginal communities and peak bodies of the lack of funding for First Nations in the 2020-21 Budget, in particular the lack of funding to achieve Closing the Gap strategy.

“I’ve been in the senate for one day and this Budget has been a clear example of how this government treats the  First People of this country,” said Senator Thorpe, Greens First Nations spokesperson.

Leader of the Australian Greens, Adam Bandt, has today announced a portfolio redistribution that will see Lidia Thorpe and Mehreen Faruqi take on a new anti-racism strategy intended to counter Australia’s growing tide of far right nationalism and tackle systemic racism. 

The move comes as Lidia Thorpe attends her first Greens Party Room meeting as a Senator this Wednesday and ahead of a fuller redistribution of portfolios by Adam Bandt on Thursday.

Gunnai and Gunditjmara woman, Senator Lidia Thorpe, is thrilled to have been handed the responsibility of the First Nations portfolio in the Greens reshuffle.

“I’m very proud to be the first Aboriginal Senator for Victoria and to take on the First Nations portfolio. There is so much work to be continued,” she said.

“I come from a long line of strong Aboriginal women who taught me to stand up for what’s right and to never let injustice and racism beat you down. If you want change, you have to fight for it.”