The nation’s first independent body to oversee First Nations treaty negotiations has been enshrined in law, with Victoria’s parliament passing landmark legislation for its creation on Tuesday night.
The legislation will make Victoria the first jurisdiction to establish an Indigenous treaty authority that will act as an independent umpire to oversee treaty negotiations and resolve disputes between traditional owner groups and the state government.
Marcus Stewart, a Nira illim bulluk man and co-chair of the First Peoples Assembly of Victoria – the body democratically elected to develop the treaty framework – said the authority will be completely independent from government.
“We’re pushing the bureaucrats, the public service, the politics out of this entity,” he said .
“It has to have trust and faith by our community and trust in the wider Victorian community.”
Stewart said the dispute process would aim to be distinct from the “adversarial” nature of land justice disputes.
“It’ll be a process of how we bring our community, our nations together who might disagree on whether it be boundaries, whether it’ll be who’s negotiating treaty. But an opportunity, rather than people lawyering up, coming in the room, having the conversations our way,” he said.
Geraldine Atkinson, co-chair of the First Peoples Assembly of Victoria, said the independence of the authority would help Indigenous communities trust the umpire.
“It’s really important that we have an umpire that understands our culture and our way of doing things,” the Bangerang and Wiradjuri elder said.
“We’re making progress in Victoria, our people have a voice in us – the assembly.”
It comes as the Queensland government on Tuesday confirmed a three-year Indigenous truth-telling inquiry would take place as the state progresses in its treaty negotiations with its First Nations people.
Victoria’s treaty process draws on models used in Canada’s British Columbia and New Zealand. The bill for the authority had previously received bipartisan support in the lower house, despite outgoing Liberal MP Tim Smith voting against it and describing the legislation as “divisive tokenism.”
The authority – made up of five Aboriginal leaders – will have ongoing funding that is not tied to election cycles and will not report to a minister.
It will receive $40.2m in funding over the next three years and a self-determination fund will financially support traditional owner groups to enter into negotiations with the government.
The first treaties in Victoria could be signed as early as next year.
The findings of Victoria’s truth inquiry – the Yoorrook justice commission – will also inform the state’s treaty process.
Victoria is the only jurisdiction in Australia to have already enacted the treaty and truth-telling components of the 2017 Uluru Statement from the Heart – with the federal government committing to move on both. The assembly is centred on the belief that without truth there can be no treaty.
The Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, said the authority showed “how far we’ve come” in a short time period.
