Cost of Victorian Treaty revealed
The Victorian government’s Statewide Treaty Bill is expected to cost the taxpayer $280 million by 2030, according to figures revealed in government papers and forecasts.
And it has been estimated the Labor government has already spent about $380 million negotiating a treaty with Indigenous Victorians since 2016.
Over the next five years of proposed funding, with $36.8 million allocated for capital costs, total spending on the treaty and the proposed Gellung Warl organisation, will have reached $660 million.
The legislation will mark the first formal treaty between an Australian State and traditional owners since colonisation began.
Injustice of colonisation
The bill to introduce the treaty and the statutory bodies is expected to be passed when the Victorian Parliament sits either later this month or in October.
“The historic wrongs and ongoing injustice of colonisation have resulted in unacceptable levels of discrimination, disadvantage and intergenerational trauma for First Peoples,’ the bill says.
“These acts of injustice must not continue or be repeated. The State of Victoria commits to not repeating past injustices.
“Past and existing laws have not been able to fully recognise the inherent rights of First Peoples or address disadvantage and trauma.
“It is acknowledged that since colonisation Traditional Owners of Country in Victoria have fought for and won back some of the rights and status they hold under Aboriginal Lore and Law.”
Treaty implementation
Victoria’s deputy premier Ben Carroll told the Melbourne Herald Sun that Aboriginal Australians had endured 65,000 years of inequality.
‘We’re very proud of being the first state in Australia, and indeed in the Commonwealth, to implement the Treaty,’ he said.
One per cent of the State’s population of 6.5 million citizens – identified as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander.
Then new body, Gellung Warl, will have the power to scrutinise government programs and make representations.
It will be able to send a representative to cabinet meetings, but it will have no power to veto policies.
