The Politics of Truth: The Howard Government, <scp>HREOC</scp> , and <scp> <i>Bringing Them Home</i> </scp>

The year 2025 marks the 30th anniversary of the commencement of the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission's National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from their Families. The Inquiry and its final report, Bringing Them Home , highlighted the traumatic impact and nationwide extent of child removal practices implemented across Australia over more than a century. Calling on deeply personal testimony, the Inquiry carried profound implications for Australian history, for the government and non‐government agencies and actors involved in First Nations child removal, and for removed individuals, their families and communities. Drawing on archival research, this article explores the impact of the election of the Howard government in March 1996 on the Inquiry's proceedings. It identifies the processes through which the Howard government formulated its submission to the Inquiry in 1996 and developed its response to the Bringing Them Home report in 1997. This in‐depth examination of key moments in the Howard government's relationship with the Inquiry seeks to inform understanding of the political contention around First Nations truth‐telling in Australia.