Co-chair of Victoria First Peoples’ Assembly explains introduction of treaty bill to parliament

ABC NEWS (Australia)

In Victoria, the state government is introducing legislation to parliament for a treaty with First Peoples, makes Victoria the first state or territory to take this step. If the treaty bill passes, a First Peoples body will operate out of state parliament to lead the ongoing truth-telling effort, inform decisions on laws affecting Indigenous people and hold government to account. Rueben Berg is Co-chair of the First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria.

Transcript

00:00So if this bill is passed, what we'll see is a reset between the relationship of First

00:08Peoples and the government.

00:09That's really at its heart of what we're talking about, as well as the creation of an independent

00:13accountability mechanism to make sure we're getting the best outcomes for First Peoples.

00:18So its passage looks likely, that's despite the Coalition withdrawing support for it last

00:24year.

00:25When would it be operational and why does it explicitly declare it will not take anything

00:30away from the broader community?

00:35So if it is successful in passing through Parliament, that's when we'll see the finalisation of the

00:39treaty process and we're hopeful to have it up and running by early next year so that

00:43we can make sure we're getting out there and delivering better outcomes.

00:46And we're mindful that there has been a lot of misinformation in the past around the treaty

00:50making process and other First Peoples initiatives.

00:52So we really want to make it clear that this is something that enhances how society operates

00:56and isn't something for anybody else to be concerned about.

00:59And it will have the power to create new institutions.

01:02What's likely?

01:04So one of the things we're focused on is the creation of a First Peoples Institute so that

01:09we can strengthen the capability and skills of First Peoples to step into key leadership roles

01:13within the treaty space.

01:15So the body will be subject to similar oversight to Parliament, so it will be subject to oversight

01:25from IBAC and from the Ombudsman.

01:28And there will be really strong requirements for the body to engage with community about

01:32how it undertakes its business.

01:33So there will be many forms of accountability for this future body.

01:36Ruben, we all understand the setbacks that came from the voice referendum.

01:41Were there any gains to be had in terms of understanding where support was for progress in that process?

01:49Yeah, I think it's been critical to make sure we build on the support that we know

01:55does exist out there.

01:56And this process is very, very different from the referendum.

01:59I think that's important to understand, that the referendum was about a national issue

02:02and this is just about a state-based approach.

02:05It was about constitutional change, and that's not involved in this process.

02:08And the referendum was also about putting in place what was essentially an untested model,

02:13whereas here we're just enhancing the work of the First Peoples Assembly, which has already

02:16been in place for six years.

02:17And so as we said, the legislation is being tabled in Parliament.

02:22What is the role for allies in this process?

02:27There's lots of roles for allies.

02:29We'd really like to see them elevate the voices of First Peoples through this process,

02:33make sure they're talking to their friends and colleagues about treaty.

02:35We need to make sure that all Victorians understand what this is about, and they should be proud

02:39of what we're achieving here in Victoria.

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