Aboriginal treaty to bring huge changes to Victoria: Details about how the state will be reshaped for good

The Victorian government has reached a ‘historic’ treaty agreement with Aboriginal groups that will see school children taught about the ‘enduring harm’ of colonisation, a formal apology and more geographical locations given Indigenous names. 

Premier Jacinta Allan announced the agreement between her government and the First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria on Tuesday. 

The move – the nation’s first treaty between a state government and Aboriginal peoples – will also result in a new Indigenous body, named Gellung Warl – meaning ‘tip of the spear’ – that critics have compared to a Voice to Parliament. 

Members of the Gellung Warl will be elected and sit in a dedicated room in Victoria’s parliament. It will have the power to scrutinise government programs and make representations to both houses of parliament, state cabinet, departmental secretaries and individual MPs.

‘Treaty is built on a simple principle: First Peoples decide First Peoples’ issues. This doesn’t take anything away from anyone else,’ the treaty states. 

‘The State has made the commitment to Treaty because when First Peoples thrive, all of Victoria is stronger, fairer, and more whole. 

‘Treaty is not a gift given, but a commitment made to practical change, to shared progress, and to a future in which dignity and opportunity belong to all.’ 

As a result of the agreement, from prep to Year Ten, schools will teach the ‘enduring harm’ of colonisation, injustice, and dispossession, as told by Indigenous Australians since it began in 1788. 

Traditional Indigenous names are expected to be used more often for geographical locations as a result of the agreement. 

Parks, waterways and waterfalls with names ‘offensive’ to Aboriginal people could also be rebadged.

Gellung Warl will also look to embed ‘truth-telling’ in Victorian public servants’ training.

The body will too establish and operate a ‘First Peoples’ Infrastructure Fund’ from July next year. 

‘Gellung Warl will operate the Infrastructure Fund to support Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations… with maintenance, minor building works, capital works, infrastructure upgrades and related project planning,’ the legislation states.

It will also handle the First Peoples’ Awards and Events program instead of the Department of Premier and Cabinet.

Future agreements will now be negotiated by the Gellung Warl authority, the state’s 38 traditional owner groups, and the Victorian government. 

Allan said the negotiations were finalised on Tuesday and the Bill was now waiting to pass through the Victorian Parliament. 

‘Policies and programs work best when the people affected by them have a say in how they are delivered – that’s why this Bill proposes to put decision-making power about initiatives and services that impact First Peoples into the hands of First Peoples’ Assembly,’ she said. 

Last week, it was revealed the successive Labor governments of Dan Andrews and Jacinta Allan have spent at least $380million on negotiating a treaty with Indigenous Victorians since 2016.

With the next five years of proposed funding and $36.8million allocated for capital costs between 2026 and 2029, total spending on the treaty and Gellung Warl will have hit $660million by 2030. 

The state Coalition previously vowed to vote against the treaty. Opposition Leader Brad Battin said the legislation echoed the shot-down Voice referendum. 

The majority of Victorians voted against the national Voice to Parliament in the 2023 referendum, with only 45.85 per cent of voters supportive of the move.

‘We believe, very strongly, that Victoria has a great democracy which elects the people in the Parliament. And that should be the voice of all Victorians,’ Battin told Sky News in January. 

‘We’ve already said that we would scrap the Treaty, we’ve been very strong on that and we’ll continue that message.

‘Our view is very much that the Victorian Parliament is a place for all voices, that’s where everybody should be heard here in the state.’

Regardless, the legislation to enact the treaty is expected to sail through the state’s lower house, where the Labor government holds a commanding majority. 

But the Bill is expected to face intense scrutiny in the upper house, with the support of at least six crossbenchers needed for it to pass. 

However, the Animal Justice Party, Victorian Greens and Legalise Cannabis Party have indicated they would support the bill through the upper house. 

A preamble to the agreement touts the ‘dawn of a new era’ in the state. 

‘The colony of Victoria was established without the consent, negotiation or recognition of the Traditional Owners of these lands and waters,’ it stated. 

‘What followed was violence, destruction and dispossession: a rush to take land, lives, and resources, leaving lasting scars on families, communities and Country itself.’

The harm of colonisation is yet to end, it reads, though the Treaty is one of the ‘most important steps’ the state has taken.