From here, the challenge before the First Peoples’ Assembly is to make good on the promise of treaty, through the unique, self-determinative governance structures it will establish, to meaningfully improve the lives of Aboriginal people in Victoria.
Earlier in the day, as the legislation underpinning treaty was being picked at and prodded by opposition MPs in the Legislative Council, Rueben Berg reflected that he was impatient not for the bill to pass, but to get on with what needs to come next.
Berg, a member of the negotiating team who spent nearly a year nutting out the details of this historic agreement with government officials and lawyers, understands the greatest test of treaty is not whether it would be accepted by parliament but whether it will succeed.
The framework of treaty is by now familiar to readers of this masthead. Gellung Warl, a Gunaikurnai term for “tip of the spear” is the name given to a new Aboriginal governance structure.
Within this, there will sit an ongoing First Peoples’ Assembly, a permanent truth-telling body and an accountability commission which will provide a rolling audit of government programs and policies designed to close the gap in socioeconomic outcomes between black and white Victorians.
It is a structure which gives Aboriginal people broad access to government decision makers and greater power to determine their own affairs, and requires parliament to consider and report against the implications for Aboriginal people of every bill that passes through this place.
Yet, it is designed to sit alongside, rather than disrupt, existing governance structures and constitutional arrangements.
The Andrews and Allan governments have been promising treaty for nearly 10 years.
This year, a slow march has become a gallop, as the findings of the Yoorrook Justice Commission put the case for radical change in the state’s relationship with Aboriginal people and treaty negotiations quickly established consensus over what this should look like.
The Coalition does not support treaty and has vowed to repeal the legislation which underpins it within the first 100 days of forming government.
