The Hon. Beverley McArthur, Member for Western Victoria, Media Release, 13 July 2023

Victorians should be alert – and probably alarmed – at a deal that has been kept quiet by the State Government that will give indigenous groups in Western Victoria a huge say over water, roads and biosecurity.

A story published by The Weekly Times discussed the “expanded settlement package” which was signed in October last year by the Victorian Attorney-General, Jaclyn Symes, and five aboriginal groups (WJJWJ). It will be administered by the Barengi Gadjin Land Council, BGLC.

This Council includes the Wotjobaluk, Jaadwa, Jadawadjali, Wergaia and Jupagulk Peoples, WJJWJ.

The land mass covered by the agreement is nearly 36,000 sq km and involves ten local councils: Ararat, Horsham, Buloke, Hindmarsh, Pyrenees, Northern Grampians, Southern Grampians, Yarriambiak, Mildura and West Wimmera.

It is understood the councils were excluded from the agreement negotiations and were only informed about it last month and after it was a fait accompli.

Member for Western Victoria, Bev McArthur, said the ongoing agreements in the document need to be made public by the Victorian Government and should have been thoroughly and transparently aired before the ink was dry.

“There is so much to be worried about in relation to this ‘unprecedented’ agreement,” Mrs McArthur said.

“Firstly – that we should have to read about the finer details in the paper.

“Secondly – that councils are recommended to give broad-ranging preferences to aboriginal groups in matters such as procurement.

“Thirdly – that this comes as Australia looks to a referendum that will divide Australians on race.

“Fourthly, that the Victorian Premier is yet to confirm if he will spend taxpayers’ money supporting the Yes case for the referendum.

“Fifthly, that Victoria has already put together a First People’s Assembly to outline a blanket Treaty for Victoria, and to also enable specific treaties with separate Indigenous communities.

“And finally, that these groups have been given access to a $65 million self-determination fund (which can be added to) so that they can be on an equal footing when negotiating with government,” Mrs McArthur said.

“I’m guessing every Victorian in a dispute, or making a deal, with the Victorian Government would also like a $65 million fund to achieve an ‘equal footing’ with the State.

“I’m also quite sure the 10 councils now subject to this deal would also like $65 million to get an equal footing – rather than being shown the done-deal with absolutely no input,” she said.

The Weekly Times indicates it has seen a copy of the deal which says the councils will be subject to the agreement and recommended to:

• “Partner with BGLC when updating or creating water management strategies,
• Consult with BGLC on road and roadside management and maintenance,
• Involve BGLC in all levels of biodiversity strategy and decision-making (both indigenous and introduced species),
• Source biodiversity and carbon offsets, and other environmental market services and products from BGLC or other WJJWJ entities or businesses as a first preference,
• Employ appropriately skilled WJJWJ people and establish contracting and procurement processes to preferentially source goods and services from BGLC and other WJJWJ entities or businesses.”

Mrs McArthur said the agreement could be catastrophic for the non-indigenous private sector if the recommendations for preferential sourcing are upheld.

The Gazetted agreement of October 2022 stipulated a Right of First Refusal process for Natural Resource Management contracts. The Government needs to confirm if ongoing negotiations have indeed detailed similar requirements for all areas of procurement as suggested in The Weekly Times story.

“If that is the case, then to assert control of the multi-million-dollar market of goods and services to these local councils, the indigenous groups simply have to establish businesses that deliver what the councils require.

“For example, they could establish a stationery business, or a nursery, an employment, audit or legal firm, a cleaning business, an I.T. and electrical goods company, a catering enterprise and so on.

“The councils are then heavily encouraged to give preference to them – for jobs, for pens and paper, for trees and plants for local parks and gardens, for temporary staff, fulltime staff, for legal and accounting advice, for computers and phones, catering needs or office cleaning.

“Such agreements have the potential to destroy any other local business that would normally contract to councils. Imagine the impact of this in country Victoria,” Mrs McArthur said.

The President of the Municipal Association of Victoria, David Clark, told The Weekly Times that the state had made the agreement on behalf of local Councils and it would change how Councils operated.

“He rightly draws attention to potential problems for farmers leasing Crown Land with waterfronts in which the 20-metre rule (from the waterfront) for public purpose reserves could be used by aboriginal groups to ‘access management funding and place future carbon capture initiatives.’

“He also said it could impact a farmer’s decision to put an access bridge across a waterway. A farmer might need indigenous sign off for such a project.

“It’s starting to feel like WA in Victoria,” Mrs McArthur said, referring to the Aboriginal Heritage Act implemented in WA on 1 July 2023. This WA Act put an end to a community tree-planting day at Geraldton on the weekend.

The Agreement led by the Attorney-General also allows 12 National Parks to be co-managed by indigenous groups with the state.

‘Isn’t it strange that at the same time the US Supreme Court rules that race-based affirmative action is against the US Constitution, Australia is implementing the opposite: entrenching division and preferential rights based upon one’s race? And in any case, how do we ascertain who is indigenous? 

“Victorians need to understand that a Yes vote will simply add another layer of aboriginal bureaucracy to a state that is just starting to see, via ‘secret’ deals, what Treaty in Victoria will look like.

“It makes a mockery of our recently changed National Anthem, Advance Australia Fair.

“The Voice will do away with the second line “For we are one and free”, because we will not be united as One when the Voice establishes a two-tiered system.

“And that, without any doubt, is not ‘Fair’,” Mrs McArthur said.