Victorians for Treaty

Send a letter to Leader of the Opposition, Brad Battin, demonstrating your support for Treaty for Victoria!

Legislation for Australia's first Treaty, between the First Peoples' Assembly of Victoria and the Victorian Government, will soon be introduced to the Victorian Parliament. This is a historic moment building on over 200 years of First Nations advocacy. The journey to Treaty for Victoria has been led by First Peoples, but it is going to take all of us to make Treaty a reality.

We know that a vast majority of Victorians support a Treaty for Victoria: we support addressing the past and building a better future together. We support Aboriginal people having a say in the decisions that affect Aboriginal communities. We support honouring and sharing in the oldest living cultures and languages in the world.

This support needs to be communicated to opposition MPs: when the Treaty legislation lands in Parliament, we want Brad Battin and his party to choose reconciliation, not division; we want them to listen to the voices of First Peoples who have been calling for Treaty for decades, and we want them to accept the invitation to join this historic journey.

Find out more about Treaty

Sign up to the First Peoples' Assembly of Victoria for updates

Send a letter to Leader of the Opposition, Brad Battin, demonstrating your support for Treaty for Victoria!

Legislation for Australia's first Treaty, between the First Peoples' Assembly of Victoria and the Victorian Government, will soon be introduced to the Victorian Parliament. This is a historic moment building on over 200 years of First Nations advocacy. The journey to Treaty for Victoria has been led by First Peoples, but it is going to take all of us to make Treaty a reality.

We know that a vast majority of Victorians support a Treaty for Victoria: we support addressing the past and building a better future together. We support Aboriginal people having a say in the decisions that affect Aboriginal communities. We support honouring and sharing in the oldest living cultures and languages in the world.

This support needs to be communicated to opposition MPs: when the Treaty legislation lands in Parliament, we want Brad Battin and his party to choose reconciliation, not division; we want them to listen to the voices of First Peoples who have been calling for Treaty for decades, and we want them to accept the invitation to join this historic journey.

Find out more about Treaty

Sign up to the First Peoples' Assembly of Victoria for updates

Brad Battin - Victorians support Treaty!

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Dear Mr. Battin,

[DELETE THIS SECTION AND INCLUDE A PERSONALISED INTRODUCTION - WHO YOU ARE AND WHY YOU/YOUR ORGANISATION SUPPORTS TREATY]

Legislation to enact Treaty between the State and elected representatives of Victorian First Peoples will soon be introduced to Parliament. This will be the first legislation of its kind in Australia and represents a historic step in our shared reconciliation journey.

As a longtime supporter of this reconciliation journey, I was inspired by the bipartisan support shown by the Coalition in State Parliament in passing the Treaty Authority and Other Treaty Elements Act 2022.

That was a proud day for Victoria. It showed us what is possible when we refuse to be prisoners of our politics.

The Coalition’s subsequent decision to withdraw bipartisan support for the Treaty process in Victoria last year was viewed with disappointment by many of us and with hurt by First Nations communities

The recent Federal Election demonstrated that Victorians do not buy into the culture wars and political opportunism following on from the failure of the Voice to Parliament referendum. While much has been made of the majority No vote in Victoria, many electorates recorded a majority 'Yes' vote, and it is clear this support carries over into support for Treaty. This was demonstrated in the over 14,000 Victorians who joined the Walk for Truth.

Furthermore, adversarial politics place a target on the backs of First Peoples, giving license for racism and dramatically affecting mental, physical and spiritual health. Surely it is time to rethink your party’s rejection of the Treaty-making process in Victoria. The Victorian Treaty process is unique and is leading the country as proof that a pathway of Self-determination is the best way to achieve reconciliation and unity between all Victorians.

The Coalition stated that your reason for stepping away from the Treaty process was to focus on Closing the Gap measures instead. The Productivity Commission’s final report ‘Review of the National Agreement on Closing the Gap’ reveals that continuing down the path of ‘business as usual’ is tokenistic and a recipe for failure and specifically called out the Victorian process as the way to achieve structural reform.

The report highlights Self-determination and the Victorian Treaty-making process as strong pathways to address the disempowerment of First Peoples. Coupled with supporting First Nations organisations through long term capacity building and sustainable funding, we can create the necessary foundation to achieve better health, wellbeing and safety outcomes by putting decision making in the hands of First Peoples experts.

A fundamental change is required to give First Nations peoples and their community-controlled organisations Self-determination to drive better outcomes. First Nations peoples have the solutions, and we know that any path forward requires respect for their agency.

We hear a lot of well-intentioned talk from politicians about Closing the Gap. Treaty, and an evolved representative body working alongside Government is the way that the Aboriginal Community in Victoria has chosen to enact this.
 
We call on you and your colleagues in the State Opposition to assess the bill that comes before you on its merits and support Treaty that will allow Victorians, Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal, to walk forward together.

I look forward to hearing a response from you on this matter.

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