“What we have witnessed today is an affront to the fundamental principle that all Victorians are equal under the law. If passed, the Allan government’s treaty legislation will fundamentally change Victoria’s legal structure creating special rights for some,” said Margaret Chambers, Research Fellow at the Institute of Public Affairs.
Initial IPA analysis of the Statewide Treaty Bill 2025, introduced into the Victorian parliament this afternoon, finds the bill will:
- Create a separate, parallel system of government to be known as ‘Gellung Warl’:
- Gellung Warl will incorporate the existing First Peoples’ Assembly and oversee new truth-telling and accountability bodies (clauses 92 and 117) to represent Indigenous Victorians. It will not be subject to the control or direction of the Minister for Treaty and First Peoples (clause 13).
- The Statewide Treaty Bill violates the principle of parliamentary sovereignty:
- The First Nations Assembly will essentially become a state-based Voice to Parliament body, with the right to haul ministers and executive officers before it for questioning (clause 80) and have the special opportunity to influence parliamentary debate and proceedings (clauses 64-66).
- The Statewide Treaty Bill takes the extraordinary step of setting a statutory guarantee of government funding for Gellung Warl to automatically increase by 2.5 per cent per annum.
“By seeking to force through this legislation, the Allan government is deliberately creating a new, two-tiered legal system that affords special rights to some Victorians, while paving the way for reparation payments,” Ms Chambers said.
“The proposed treaty and state-based Voice to Parliament is an assault on parliament sovereignty, where unelected and unaccountable individuals will now be able to direct government services, and the enforcement and administration of laws.”
“The legislation also violates the basic rule of law principle that all people are subject to the same laws, and that those laws are applied impartially,” Ms Chambers said.
Previous IPA research found that the Victorian government has spent $776 million on preparing and negotiating the treaty since 2016.
“The Allan government’s agenda has been forecast to cost Victorians, at a minimum, $679 million over the next decade, simply to administer these activist bodies. Far from restoring social cohesion, it divides Victorians by race and stokes division in the community,” Ms Chambers said.
“In addition, the legislation provides sweeping exemptions from freedom of information laws. Victorians will never know how this treaty was negotiated between the government and the activists it benefits.”
Victorians overwhelmingly voted against this agenda at the Voice to Parliament referendum in 2023.
“The Victorian government’s new and divisive two-tiered legal structure shows what utter contempt it holds for mainstream Victorians,” Ms Chambers said.
“Undoubtedly, a bill 246 pages long will have a number of buried clauses which will further erode the rights of mainstream Victorians. This bill must be subject to a full and thorough committee process for the sake of transparency so the public are aware how it will fundamentally change the way of life of all Victorians.”
To download the IPA’s previous research click here.
