Victorian Indigenous leaders who will negotiate the state’s nation-first treaty will push to overhaul how traditional owners are represented, raising the age of criminal responsibility and boosting First Nations peoples’ involvement in protecting the environment.
The First Peoples’ Assembly election results were finalised on Saturday evening, with 22 general members elected to represent Indigenous Victorians in treaty negotiations with the Andrews government this year. The state-wide treaty could lead to changes to Victoria’s institutional structures, including the criminal justice system.
The election results have reignited a debate about the representation of traditional owners at the assembly.
Of the 22 general members elected, 11 have been elected for the first time. They include Nerita Waight, chief executive of the Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service, Barry Firebrace-Briggs, a former Department of Premier and Cabinet staffer, Rodney Carter, a former chair of the state’s heritage council, and Sheree Lowe, an executive director at the Victorian Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation.
Waight said she would push for reforming the justice system to “work for Aboriginal people”. She pointed to independent police oversight, bail reform and raising the age of criminal responsibility.
“The mainstream system isn’t working and at some time we have to recognise that some things are broken beyond repair,” she said.
The Andrews government has vowed to overhaul the state’s controversial bail laws, which have disproportionately impacted Indigenous women.
“These are longstanding matters,” said Waight, a Yorta Yorta and Narrandjeri woman. “Matters the government has had more than 10 years to address.”
The Indigenous elder Gary Murray said he would prioritise overhauling the assembly’s makeup of traditional owners, to ensure Victoria’s 38 Indigenous language groups had a seat. The assembly now has 11 reserved seats – of which 10 are occupied – for traditional owner groups formally recognised by the state and 22 general members.
“We know which nations are here – what’s lacking is recognition,” said the Dhudhuroa, Yorta Yorta, Barapa Barapa, Dja Dja Wurrung, Wamba Wemba, Wergaia, Wiradjeri man. “This current recognition thing is discriminatory.”
The 38 nations model is contested in Victoria. The state has 11 registered Aboriginal parties that are formally recognised by the government, covering about 74% of the state, according to the Aboriginal Heritage Council.
But Rodney Carter, a Dja Dja Wurrung man, said his priority was ensuring Indigenous Victorians played a greater role in improving the state’s biodiversity.
“We need to do this,” he said. “Otherwise things will just keep becoming extinct.”
The outgoing assembly co-chair Marcus Stewart, a Nira illim bulluk man of the Taungurung nation, said the results were a watershed moment for decolonisation in Victoria. “These are the people who will represent us mob proudly and will get Treaty done,” he said.
The assembly’s electoral roll more than tripled since its inaugural elections were held in 2019, with more than 7,000 First Nations Victorians aged over 16 now enrolled to vote. The assembly has confirmed about 4,200 people voted in the election.
The overhauled 31-seat assembly is also expected to be a key point of contact for the commonwealth’s proposed voice to parliament, and could elect the members who will sit on the advisory body.
The new assembly will meet for the first time next month to elect two co-chairs.
Along with the state-wide treaty, traditional owner groups will also be able to negotiate separate treaties with the state government for issues relevant to specific regions of the state.
