Australia’s first formal treaty with Indigenous traditional owners passed in Victoria | Indigenous Australians
Australia’s state of Victoria has taken a historic step towards reconciliation by signing the country’s first formal agreement with its indigenous traditional owners.
After two days of debate, the upper house of the Victorian parliament passed the statewide agreement bill without amendment by a vote of 21 to 16 just before 9pm on Thursday.
As the vote was confirmed, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags were unfurled in the public gallery, where First People’s Assembly co-chairs Ngarra Murray and Rueben Berg sat with other members and Aboriginal elders. MPs from the Labor, Greens, Cannabis Legalization and Animal Justice parties, which supported the bill, turned to applaud the gallery.
“This is a historic moment for our people,” Ngarra said after the vote. “We will tell our children about this day and they will tell their children about this day, passing on to future generations the story of how Aboriginal resistance and activism led to Australia’s first treaty.
“The Treaty marks the beginning of a new era in which the 60,000 years of knowledge and culture of First Peoples are respected and celebrated. This is an opportunity for all Victorians to acknowledge our shared history, heal and move forward together.”
Berg said the agreement recognized that Aboriginal people were experts on their own lives.
“Through the agreement, we will have the ability to use our expertise to find and deliver practical solutions for our local communities in areas such as health, education, housing and justice,” he said. “This will mean better results for our people because we know what works and what doesn’t for us.”
Victorian premier Jacinta Allan said it was the result of almost 10 years of work by the Labor government, which began in 2016, and decades of advocacy for First Nations people.
“The Treaty gives Aboriginal communities the power to shape the policies and services that affect their lives,” Allan said. “This is how we build a fairer, stronger Victoria for everyone.”
The legislation establishes the First People’s Assembly as a permanent representative body that will advise the government under a new legal institution called the Gellung Warl.
In its expanded role, the parliament will be able to make representations, make recommendations to the government and ask questions to ministers. Ministers and government departments will be required to consult parliament on laws and policies related to First Peoples. However, the parliament will not have veto power.
Gellung Warl will also include a truth-telling institution known as Nyerna Yoorrook Telkuna and an accountability institution known as Nginma Ngainga Wara. Second, it will enable the government to meet its commitments under the national agreement on closing the gap.
Other responsibilities include verifying Aboriginal identity, managing community infrastructure and cultural programs, and establishing a training institute for Indigenous leadership and skills training.
With the bill passed, the government and parliament will formally sign the 34-page settlement agreement, which also includes a commitment to reshape the school curriculum to include truth-telling, a formal apology to First Peoples in parliament and greater use of traditional place names across Victoria. A public celebration will be held in Melbourne later.
The move makes Victoria the first Australian state to embrace Voice, Agreement and Truth, the three pillars of reform heartily laid out in the 2017 Uluru declaration, a landmark document in which Indigenous leaders called for constitutional recognition.
The treaty process initially had bipartisan support, but the state’s centre-right opposition, the Liberal-National Coalition, withdrew its support after the failure of a 2023 national referendum aimed at enshrining indigenous voices in parliament in the constitution, in which nearly 60% of Australians voted “no”.
The coalition has since vowed to repeal the agreement within 100 days of the government if it wins state elections in November 2026.
