All proposed new laws in Victoria will now need aboriginal approval to be debated in parliament under the state’s controversial and undemocratic Treaty.
The Labor state government made the change on Thursday, requiring every bill to come with a statement compatibility with the Treaty, which was passed in October last year despite polls shows public support of just 37%, and 54% of Victorians voting against the similar Voice to Parliament in 2023.
The Opposition warned the Treaty test would “move Victoria towards two separate forms of government”, with Liberal MP Bev McArthur saying it would be costly, cause delays, and create a “two-tier parliament”.
“No other group gets this sort of special treatment, not farmers, not immigrants, not the young, not the old, not corporations, not even unions,” she told Sky News.
“We’re Victorian politicians, were elected by all Victorians … not just a select group.
“It weakens parliament’s sovereignty and it embeds permanent division into the legislative process.”
Political commentator Peta Credlin said the change would give a small “hardly representative” group of aboriginal people “an effective power of veto over every bill”.
“At the assembly’s most recent election in 2023, only 4,000 people voted, from the 7,000 enrolled to vote, out of a total indigenous population in the state estimated to be about 45,000,” she wrote in an opinion piece on Sunday.
“In other words, a race-based body, elected by fewer than 10% of Victoria’s aboriginal population, will now have a privileged say over every law impacting the 7 million Victorians.”
But the Victorian government has defended the move, saying it was a requirement of the Treaty and calling critics “divisive”.
“The timing of this is critical because as of the first of May this is a requirement and this gives time for it to be put into practice by the end of April,” said Treaty and First Peoples Minister Ros Spence.
Premier Jacinta Allan accused the Opposition of “playing games”, and indigenous Labor MP Sheena Watt said they were spreading a “poisonous brand of hate”.
Voting for the Treaty elections began on March 21 and will continue until April 12, with the newly elected body set to commence in May.
The son of anti-Australian far-left independent senator Lidia Thorpe, Andrew Thorpe, is among the 70 candidates competing to be elected, and told The Guardian he wants to “make changes that are beneficial for mob”.
Representatives in the First People’s Assembly will be paid a full-time annual wage of $198,000, about $14,000 less than a backbench MP.
The assembly will have 34 seats, with 12 going to “traditional owner” groups, 10 to elected candidates from metropolitan areas, and 12 to those from regional areas.
All indigenous Victorians over the age of 16 who are from “traditional owner” groups or who have lived in the state for three out of the past five years are eligible to vote, but voting is not compulsory.
South Australia held its most recent First Nations Voice election at the same time as last month’s state election, but the turnout of just 10% sparked calls for the advisory body – which unlike Victoria’s is not enshrined in the constitution – to be scrapped.
Header image: Left, Ms Allan addresses the First Peoples Assembly. Right, Andrew Thorpe (Facebook).
The post Every new law in Victoria now needs aboriginal approval under Treaty first appeared on The Noticer.
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