Opposition dumps vow to back First Nations treaty process

The Victorian opposition has dropped support for a treaty with First Nations peoples, with Nationals leader Peter Walsh admitting to a policy reversal that meant they would not back the process currently under way while they still had concerns about cultural heritage laws.

Walsh, who is also the Coalition’s spokesman for Aboriginal affairs, made the comments on Sky News on Sunday.

Victorian Nationals leader Peter Walsh.Credit: Justin McManus

The move comes less than a week before Australia Day and is set to shape the annual debate about whether the public holiday should be moved. Indigenous advocates lashed the decision as policy gymnastics.

The opposition backed legislation in 2022 to set up a treaty authority that would oversee the negotiations between the state government and Victoria’s Aboriginal representatives.

But following the defeat of the referendum for a Voice to parliament last year, Opposition Leader John Pesutto laid the ground for a policy shift by stating the Coalition had not reached a formal position about its support for future laws or decisions related to the treaty process.

On Sunday, Walsh took those comments a step further, telling Sky News the Coalition had now held internal discussions and did not believe it should “proceed with treaty, until issues around cultural heritage, until issues around the Traditional Owner Settlement Act are actually resolved”.

Walsh acknowledged he had told a gathering of Indigenous leaders in parliament in 2022 that the opposition would support the path to treaty.

“Since that time things have changed,” he said on Sunday, pointing in particular to concerns about the functioning of the cultural heritage system.

Walsh said he had raised these problems with Minister for Treaty and First Peoples Natalie Hutchins and was open to discussions with Premier Jacinta Allan to address the issues.

“We haven’t made this decision lightly,” he said. “We have a responsibility, as Victorians, as the alternate government to say the system’s not working at the moment. Let’s fix the system before we go any further.

“In politics, if something’s not working, you reassess, you change your mind, you work out how you can fix it rather than just keeping going on because that’s what you said a number of years ago.”

Walsh identified delays stemming from the collapse of the Bunurong Land Council as an example of problems in the current system.

He confirmed the issue was discussed at shadow cabinet last year but declined to say if the policy change was unanimously supported.

Agreeing the position was a U-turn, Walsh said the changes required to win back the opposition’s support would be much more than “tweaking”.

Victoria’s treaty process is in its early stages and negotiations are expected to cover a range of topics including political representation, land rights and policy changes in areas such as how Aboriginal Victorians interact with the justice and child protection system.

Marcus Stewart, former co-chair of the First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria, said the opposition had backflipped.

“It is a shame that they cancelled the 2026 Commonwealth Games, because Peter Walsh and John Pesutto could have led our gymnastics team,” he said.

“There’s not a chiropractor in this country that will be able to fix their backs.”

Following the resounding defeat of the referendum for a federal Voice, other Australian states announced they would reconsider their approach to treaty discussions or representative bodies for First Nations peoples.

But the Allan government committed to push ahead with Victoria’s treaty process, which has been in early negotiations and will formally begin this year.

The government was contacted for comment.

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