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Discover the damaging effects of the Aboriginal Treaty on Victorian society and why and how we must campaign against it.

Understand

The

fundamental

principles

that …

1. All races are equal in Victoria’s democracy.

We are all equal citizens.

2. Only one sovereign authority should exist – and that is the democratically elected Victorian government.

2. Only one sovereign authority should exist – and that is the democratically elected Victorian government.

3. Self-determination of all people should be achieved through the processes of parliamentary representative democracy.

Some facts about Victoria

6,766,600

Population of Victoria (2023)
49.1%

of Victorians were either born overseas or have a parent who was born overseas.
65,646

Number of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander people in Victoria, making up 1.0% of the state’s population.
50%+

Of all Victorian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders live in Greater Melbourne. (Followed by the LGAs Geelong, Bendigo, Shepparton.)
56%+

Partnered to a non-Indigenous partner.
24
Median age of Aboriginal people in Victoria 2021 was 24 compared to 37.5 for rest of Australia. (ABS)
0.4%

Speak an Australian Indigenous language. (236 people, which is 0.4% of the total Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population in Victoria.)
100%

Complete year 10 at school.
In the City of Melbourne 71% of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have completed Year 12 schooling (or equivalent).
Click to LEARN about the TREATY
What are the REASONS we should STOP TREATY?

Current Legal Frameworks Work

Existing legal frameworks address the rights and needs of all citizens, including Indigenous peoples, and that a separate treaty will undermine this.

Creates Division

Treaty will create divisions by granting certain rights to one group of people over others, leading to a sense of inequality amongst different Indigenous groups and non-Indigenous citizens.

State Unity

Unity amongst all Victorians is important. A treaty will lead to separateness rather than togetherness.

Economic and Resource Management

A treaty will impact democratic management of land and water and other resources and thus negatively impact the economic prosperity of the State.

Practicality and Priority

Given the huge long-term costs of a treaty it is questionable whether it should be a priority compared to other pressing issues facing Victoria.

Governance 

Our democratic governance structures have served all Victorians well and a treaty will damage those structures.

Sovereignty

A treaty will establish two sovereign states within Victoria and divide the management of resources and the people based upon race and hereditary.

Legal Precedent and Complexity

Treaty will introduce legal precedent and complexity into the legal system, leading to lengthy and complicated legal disputes.

Social Cohesion

Separate treaties with distinct groups within Victoria will foster feelings of separatism or ‘us versus them’ mentalities between non-indigenous and indigenous groups.

Political Stability

Treaties are destabilizing over the long term (separate sovereignty) due to the fundamental changes they introduce to the State’s political landscape.

Historical Closure

The very presence of a Treaty opens Aboriginal perceived historical wounds., whether based upon fact or narrative. Society should focus on moving forward installing perpetual; legal structures that foster grievance.

International Relations

Treaties will affect Victorias relationships internationally, including trade agreements and alliances, especially if sovereignty issues are at play.

Social, Legal and Economic Integration

All citizens should be subject to the same laws and governmental processes, without separate agreements for different groups.

Fiscal Responsibility & Resource Allocation

Treaty has economic implications. Resource allocation should be determined by democratic means.

Equality vs. Equity

The value placed on equality (treating everyone the same) can sometimes be in tension with the concept of equity (addressing imbalances in society), the evidence shows the Equity imbalance in Victoria is small compared to e.g. the Northern Territory and can be addressed by other means without the significant long-term social and economic disadvantages caused by treaty.

Political disintegration

The purpose of Treaty is to provide sovereignty and self-determination of those sovereign states for Aboriginal groups. This will divide the people and affect the governance and administrative coherence of the Victoria.

ARE ABORIGNALS RECOGNISED IN VICTORIA?

The Victorian Constitution Act of 1975 states:

1A Recognition of Aboriginal people

  1. The Parliament acknowledges that the events described in the preamble to this Act occurred without proper consultation, recognition or involvement of the Aboriginal people of Victoria.

  • 2) The Parliament recognises that Victoria’s Aboriginal people, as the original custodians of the land on which the Colony of Victoria was established—

1A Recognition of Aboriginal people

  1. The Parliament acknowledges that the events described in the preamble to this Act occurred without proper consultation, recognition or involvement of the Aboriginal people of Victoria.

  • (a) have a unique status as the descendants of Australia’s first people; and

  • (b) have a spiritual, social, cultural and economic relationship with their traditional lands and waters within Victoria; and

  • (c) have made a unique and irreplaceable contribution to the identity and well-being of Victoria.

(3) The Parliament does not intend by this section—

(a) to create in any person any legal right or give rise to any civil cause of action; or

(b) to affect in any way the interpretation of this Act or of any other law in force in Victoria.

1) Are Aboriginal people RECOGNISED in Victoria?

2) Is a TREATY a breach of the Victorian Constitution? (Paragraph 3)

Want to learn more?

“

Democracy arose from men’s thinking that if they are equal in any respect, they are equal absolutely.

Aristotle (322 BC)
“

I believe the declaration that ‘all men are created equal’ is the great fundamental principle upon which our free institutions rest.

Abraham LincolnLetter to James N. Brown, October 18, 1858
“

The very essence of democracy is that every person represents all the varied interests which compose the nation.

Mahatma Gandhi1869 - 1948
“

'One People, One Destiny.'

Henry Parkes"Father of Federation"
“

A generation ago left-wing politics was fused in a universal concept of human nature – that it was wrong to define and treat people on the basis of race, sex, gender or religion – and that right-wing prejudice against people on such criteria must be repudiated. But that was yesterday – before postmodernism, postcolonialism and critical race theory fuelled the furnace of identity politics. So fast has been this transformation that many people do not comprehend how much their attitudes are now formed by the march of the new ideology.

Paul KellyThe Australian 22/11/23