The Victorian Greens have welcomed the appointment of the Treaty Authority panel, saying it moves the state one step closer to commencing the historic Treaty negotiation process.
The Authority will be the independent body facilitating treaty negotiations between the state government and the First Nations and Clans.
While Australia remains the only Commonwealth country without a Treaty agreement with its First Peoples, Victoria enacted the country’s first Treaty legislation in 2018.
It followed years of First Nations advocates calling for truth-telling and treaties, and Greens First Nations members of parliament helping to lead the way.
Leader of the Victorian Greens, Samantha Ratnam, said this Treaty would mark a watershed moment in the fight for First Nations justice.
The Greens congratulate all Treaty Authority panel members on their appointment, the First People’s Assembly and the Victorian Government for their support of this process.
As stated by Leader of the Victorian Greens, Samantha Ratnam MLC:
“The task of negotiating the statewide Treaty will be historic.
“For more than a year the truth-telling commission has told the painful but important truth of our past, and the impact Australia’s racist, colonial history has had on First Nations people.
“It has also told of our present, how many of the harms of the colonisation of this land remain. We see them in the laws and policies that cause deaths in custody, children still being taken from families, and in the trauma and impoverishment of many First Nations people.
“Now we must see a Treaty deliver peace, justice, rights and healing for the First peoples of this land.”
