The Victorian Coalition has announced it will repeal Australia’s first statewide treaty with First Nations peoples within 100 days of government if it wins the 2026 election. Opposition Leader Brad Battin and Aboriginal affairs spokesperson Melina Bath unveiled the plan as the lower house began debating the landmark treaty bill on Tuesday.
Under the Coalition’s alternative, a new department called First Nations Victoria would be established to report to parliament and oversee progress on Closing the Gap targets. An advisory body within the department would be appointed, not elected, and would be the responsibility of a single minister. Bath said the repeal was necessary because the treaty bill creates a permanent representative body, Gellung Warl, with “power and authority” that has “never been seen before”.
Premier Jacinta Allan condemned the announcement as “divisive” and said it would “rip apart” more than a decade of work by Victorian First Peoples. Greens leader Ellen Sandell also criticised the Liberals, accusing them of “sowing division” and turning their backs on a “history-making moment”. Co-chairs of the First Peoples’ Assembly, Ngarra Murray and Rueben Berg, did not directly address the Coalition’s plan but criticised the politicisation of Indigenous affairs.
The treaty bill is expected to pass with support from the Greens and crossbenchers, making Victoria the first state to implement the voice, treaty and truth reforms from the 2017 Uluru Statement from the Heart.
