Victoria creeps closer to signing Aboriginal treaty less than one year after Voice failure

Victorians face the prospect of paying reparations and having land handed over to Aboriginal groups as the state moves a step closer to signing a treaty with indigenous Australians.

The official notification of formal talks between the First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria and the state government has been declared and entered into the Treaty Authority’s Negotiation Database.

A copy of the declaration will presented to the authority at a ceremony on Wednesday.

Assembly Co-chair Ngarra Murray said they would gather feedback from Aboriginal communities across Victoria about what should be included in the treaty talks.

‘We are a diverse mob here in Victoria made up of many nations and clans and we want to make sure everyone is heard,’ Ms Murray said.

Victoria is a step closer to becoming the first state to sign a treaty with Indigenous Australians (pictured, a protestor holds the Aboriginal flag at an Invasion Day rally in Sydney)

The Treaty Negotiation Framework allows traditional owners to form delegations to negotiate treaties that reflect priorities and aspirations specific to a specific area, while the assembly will negotiate a statewide treaty for structural reforms

‘It’s an exciting time for First Peoples in Victoria, we’ll be sitting down to negotiate the first treaty in Australia.’

Aunty Jill Gallagher, who is not directly involved in the negotiations, revealed in May what kinds of compensation she wanted First Nations people to receive. 

‘Reparations should be on the table,’ she told 3AW.

‘It might not be in the way of money form, it might be in the way of empowerment, it might be in the way of land, but definitely not private land.

‘No one is going to lose their private land through this Treaty process.’

Despite that assurance, the Allan government in Victoria has refused to rule out  compulsorily acquiring private property to be handed over as part of the treaty.

Treaty and First Peoples Minister Natalie Hutchins was pressed on the reparations matter as she fronted the Public Accounts and Estimate Committee hearing in May.

‘After 200 years of colonisation, where this state took away lands in the settlement, murdered people and took away culture and language we are not going to be ruling anything in or out as we go to the negotiation table in regards to treaty,’ Ms Hutchins said.

Ms Gallagher said land ‘must’ be part of the reparations with the government to potentially acquire land, if not through compulsory acquisition then by purchasing it.

‘It would be amazing if our elected body, the First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria, that if land came on the market we’d have the opportunity to buy it,’ she said.

The First Nations Assembly said the treaty should also see Aboriginal groups take control of policies relating to indigenous matters.

‘We’ll be looking to agree on a process and timetable for transferring decision-making powers about Aboriginal matters from the government to the assembly,’ the Assembly’s website states.

Victoria and all Australian states rejected such a transfer of power to unelected Aboriginal groups at the Voice referendum last year, yet it could now be imposed regardless of that popular vote.