South Australia will establish a truth-telling commission backed by $8.5 million in state funding, cementing its position as the second most advanced jurisdiction in Australia on the Uluru Statement from the Heart's agenda — and doing so in direct defiance of the failed 2023 federal referendum result.
Acting Premier and Aboriginal Affairs Minister Kyam Maher made the announcement at the Garma Festival in Arnhem Land, confirming the commission will be stood up over coming months. It will run a truth-telling process and provide advice on a possible treaty, representing the next stage of a program South Australian Labor has been pursuing since 2019.
What the truth-telling commission will do
The $8.5 million commission is designed as a formal mechanism for First Nations South Australians to have their histories and experiences heard and documented. Beyond truth-telling, it will also advise the state government on a potential treaty — the third and final pillar of the Uluru Statement from the Heart, which called for a Voice to Parliament, treaty and truth-telling in that order.
Maher described the commission as "the next element" of the state's ongoing work, following the successful establishment of South Australia's Voice to Parliament, which was legislated in March 2023 — months before the national referendum took place.
That state Voice body comprises 12 members drawn from six regional bodies, all elected by and from First Nations South Australians. It advises parliament and government on matters including health, education and justice affecting their communities. The body has now been through two state elections, in 2024 and 2026, and Maher noted that after the most recent poll — which returned roughly half its incumbents while bringing in an equal number of new members — it was beginning to produce substantive advice for the government to act upon.
Commitment pre-dates the referendum, Maher insists
Maher was emphatic that the state's plans are entirely independent of the federal referendum result. The October 2023 vote saw more than 60 per cent of Australians reject a constitutional change to recognise Indigenous people and establish a national advisory body, with every state and territory except the ACT voting No. South Australia, after Queensland, recorded the highest No vote in the country.
Despite that, Maher ruled out any suggestion the referendum result should cause South Australia to pause or reverse course.
"This is about something we committed seven years ago to do in South Australia, and we will take that commitment," he said, referring to the pledge Labor made in opposition in 2019.
He drew a clear distinction between what South Australia is doing and what was put to the national vote. "What was voted on at the referendum was to change the federal constitution, to firstly recognise Aboriginal people — recognise the oldest living culture this planet's ever seen — but also to establish an advisory body," he said.
Maher did acknowledge lingering community division, noting his office still receives dozens of letters on the subject each month. "I wouldn't say there's no division," he said, but indicated that would not alter the government's trajectory.
A long road since 2019
South Australia's journey on the Uluru Statement agenda has been methodical. Labor adopted the Uluru Statement from the Heart — the landmark 2017 declaration by Indigenous leaders — as a guiding framework when it was still in opposition. After winning government in 2022 and securing a second term earlier this year, it has moved steadily through each pillar of the statement.
Maher acknowledged the pioneering nature of the work, likening the early stages of building the state Voice to "building the plane as you're flying it." Without a national model to draw from, the state had to construct the infrastructure from scratch. "[You're] having to put that infrastructure around something that had never happened in Australia before," he said.
The truth-telling commission now brings South Australia into alignment with Victoria as one of only two jurisdictions actively advancing all three elements of the Uluru Statement at a state level.
What comes next
The commission is expected to be established over the coming months, with its precise structure and timeline to be confirmed. Its dual mandate — hearing truth-telling from First Nations communities and advising on treaty pathways — means it will be doing substantive work that feeds directly into any future treaty negotiations the state undertakes.
The announcement came the same weekend that Voice architect Noel Pearson delivered his first major public speech since the referendum defeat, reflecting on what the loss meant and grappling with the question of what responsibility leaders bear when a promised vision does not come to pass — an indication of how deeply the 2023 result continues to weigh on the broader movement.
For South Australia, however, the message from its Acting Premier was plain: the state's commitment was made before the referendum, it survived it, and it will continue regardless of what happens at the federal level.
