Tuesday, 17 June 2025

Treaty

Bev McARTHUR (Western Victoria) (18:42): (1715) My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Treaty and First Peoples, and the action I seek is that she immediately halt the statewide treaty process until the government comprehensively explains to the people of Victoria what treaty actually means. Last week the minister told the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee she wants treaty legislation introduced this year and a statewide treaty signed by June 2025. It assumes the public agrees that treaty is inevitable, but there has been no consultation and no informed mandate from the Victorian people – in fact quite the opposite. The Labor government is going against the will of Victorians. In 2023 Australians overwhelmingly rejected the Voice to Parliament – 60 per cent said no; every state voted no – yet now this treaty process seeks to undo that clear verdict by institutionalising racial divisions through law and government. This is not reconciliation, it is racism enshrined in legislation.

Speaking personally, I strongly believe the result of the Voice referendum underlines that our state government is absolutely wrong to take public support for these measures for granted. In my own region of Western Victoria every federal electorate rejected the Voice; the minister cannot ignore that message. She cannot presume consent. She cannot legislate away democracy in the hope that no-one notices. We are already seeing the real-world consequences of Labor’s radical agenda, with the Wotjobaluk, Jaadwa, Jadawadjali, Wergaia and Jupagulk agreement quietly signed in western Victoria. This arrangement struck between the state government and the Barengi Gadjin Land Council was never debated in this chamber, never put to the voters and never explained to the councils now expected to fund and enforce it. Under this agreement unelected land councils will be given influence over planning decisions, water rights, natural resources, naming rights, road sites, health strategies and even local rates, despite not contributing to them.

We are witnessing the erosion of democratic principles. When Australians overwhelmingly rejected the Voice to Parliament, it was a clear rejection of racial division embedded in our government and our institutions. But now treaty is being advanced in this state without a clear definition of what it is, what it means, who it covers and what the public will be required to fund or forfeit. Minister, if you proceed with treaty without a mandate, you are not governing, you are ruling. You cannot speak of justice whilst silencing the will of the Victorian people.