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 thecollapse 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”.
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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 topush 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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