Victorian Parliament Votes on Law to Negotiate Australia’s First Aboriginal Treaty

Thirty years since former prime minister Bob Hawke promised a treaty, Aboriginal leaders have urged the Federal Government to reignite the idea.

The Lower House of Victoria’s Parliament voted in favour of negotiating Australia’s first Aboriginal treaty on Thursday, after the state’s Labor Government won crucial support from the Greens.

The treaty bill is opposed by the Victorian Opposition, which favours a national approach.

The bill will now proceed to the Upper House, where Labor will need the support of the Greens and a crossbencher.

While the three Lower House Greens MPs voted for the bill on Thursday, Greens MP Lydia Thorpe, Victoria’s only Indigenous parliamentarian, wants the word sovereignty included in the legislation to acknowledge that Aboriginal people still own the land of Victoria.

“It is disappointing we’re still fighting for this Government to acknowledge Aboriginal sovereignty … a treaty is between two sovereigns,” she said.

The legislation will facilitate the establishment of an Elders Council, and a statewide meeting involving traditional owner groups, clans and organisations will be held to progress negotiations on a treaty.

Victoria’s Aboriginal Affairs Minister Natalie Hutchins said her state, and others, were going it alone because Canberra had turned its back on the issue.

“We know the Federal Government are not doing anything in this space,” she said.

“Other states are in the very preliminary stages of these sort of talks as well, and I know this will encourage them, because we are leading a new path on how to do this.”

Janine Coombs, a Wotjobaluk woman and chair of the Federation of Victorian Traditional Owner Corporations, said a treaty would be “for future generations”.

courtesy : abc.net.au
photo : Politik Dunia

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