Premier tight-lipped on Treaty settlement fund for Indigenous Victorians to buy land

Jacinta Allan has refused to say if the government has an “existing bucket of money” for First Peoples to buy land as part of Treaty settlements as she pledged to give a formal apology for the “massacres” in Victoria during colonisation.

Premier Jacinta Allan fronts the Yoorrook Justice Commission. Picture: David Crosling

Premier Jacinta Allan has refused to say whether the government has created a fund that Indigenous Victorians could one day access to buy land as part of Treaty settlements.

The Premier was called before the Yoorrook Justice Commission on Monday, where she revealed she felt “ashamed” that she only recently learned about the “size and scale of the murders and the massacres” that occured in Victoria during colonisation.

Ms Allan pledged to deliver a formal apology to First Peoples across the state, declaring that government policy has driven a gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Victorians.

“Whether ignorance or deliberate intent, we have driven that disparity … that disparity continues to play out in the lives and life outcomes for Aboriginal people,” she said.

The Yoorrook Justice Commission, which has the powers of a royal commission, is conducting public hearings into injustices against First Peoples relating to land, sky and water.

Jacinta Allan has refused to say whether the government has created a fund that Indigenous Victorians could one day access to buy land as part of Treaty settlements. Picture: David Crosling

Yoorrook’s Counsel Assisting Tony McAvoy SC asked Ms Allan: “Is the state currently setting aside money now in preparation for Treaty settlements to allow the purchase of these very important lands for First Peoples?”

Ms Allan responded: “That is very difficult for me to answer as it cuts across cabinet and budget deliberations that I’m simply not in a position to be able to canvass today.”

Asked whether an “existing bucket of money” has been set up for First Peoples to buy land, Ms Allan said she is “not at liberty to discuss government decisions around financial allocations”.

Pressed further, she said: “Should government choose to make a decision in the future to establish such a fund, it would come through consolidated revenue”.

Ms Allan said she accepted Mr McAvoy’s proposition that “there is extreme wealth being made from parcels of land that were once owned by First Peoples, for which they’ve never been compensated”.

Ms Allan says many people don’t know the full history of colonisation — and the impact it has had on Aboriginal Victorians. Picture: David Crosling

Mr McAvoy said without a land redress scheme, First Peoples would never be able to afford to live on “best lands on their country” and would be “relegated to the poorer, cheaper lands”.

Ms Allan responded: “I certainly accept that ongoing economic disadvantage has its origins in the dispossession of land at the point of colonisation”.

Earlier in the hearing, Ms Allan said she believed not enough Victorians know about the history of colonisation — and the negative impact it had on Aboriginal people.

Asked if she had a “genuine appetite” for materials and evidence from the Yoorrook Justice Commission to be used in Victorian state schools for educational purposes, Ms Allan responded: “I most certainly do”.

“The work of this Commission will give us an enormous wealth of material, evidence and fact that we can then look at how we embed that more broadly into our curriculum,” she said.

Prominent Indigenous leader Warren Mundine said the current curriculum was already “nonsense” and dividing kids along the lines of race.

“What’s happened in our education is disastrous,” he said.

“They spend so much time on this stuff, how about we focus on teaching kids how to read and write, and do maths.”

Indigenous leader Warren Mundine says the current curriculum is already ‘nonsense’ and dividing kids along the lines of race.. Picture: Jeremy Piper

Mr Mundine said the Victorian government needed to “stop carrying on the evils of colonisation” and teach kids about the progress Australia has made over the last 50 years.

“With colonisation, it’s got it’s good and it’s bad, like with anything,” he said.

“But what we should be doing is focusing on the good.”

Ms Allan said it was only a few weeks ago when preparing material to appear before the Yoorrook Justice Commission that she learned about the “size and scale of the murders and the massacres” that occurred when colonisers came to Victoria.

“I did not know of the massacres, I’m ashamed to say,” she said.

“Growing up and living as I have all my life in central Victoria, on Dja Dja Wurrung country, I did not know about the massacres that occurred so close to home. That distress carries with me today. It brings me a sense of shame and distress personally that I did not know that, and it brings me a sense of shame and distress that this was done by people, all in the pursuit of taking land off First Peoples.”

Yoorrook Justice Commission chair Aunty Eleanor Bourke urged Ms Allan to “live up to your words”.

“First Peoples have faced a long history of being let down by successive governments and their leaders,” Aunty Bourke said.

“Unless accompanied by a genuine and lasting change, acknowledgements and apologies mean little. Worse, they give the impression that action is coming while maintaining the status quo.”

During the hearing, Ms Allan repeatedly reinforced her “unwavering” commitment to a Treaty but said she would not rule in or out what may come from that process.

The First Peoples Assembly of Victoria, an elected body of Aboriginal people who will conduct Treaty negotiations with the government, has previously said that “nothing is off the table”.