The Indigenous Victorians who will deliver a treaty between the state government and First Nations people have been chosen after a record number of voters turned out to elect the 22-representative body. Source: The Age.
A fresh cohort of the First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria was announced on Saturday night after a three-week election open to Indigenous Victorians over the age of 16. The first iteration of the representative body for Indigenous Victorians was elected in 2019, and the new assembly will begin treaty negotiations with the Andrews government later this year.
The assembly is also expected to interact with the national Voice to Parliament if the Albanese Government’s referendum is successful, and it would play a role in selecting the Victorian representatives to the national body.
In the upcoming term, the assembly will negotiate a statewide treaty to tackle overarching issues such as improving health, education and justice. It will also help the diverse traditional owner groups in Victoria negotiate treaties in their areas that reflect their specific aspirations and priorities.
Twenty-two new members out of 75 candidates were elected to general seats representing five regions: 10 members from metropolitan Melbourne and three for each of the North-West, North-East, South-East and South-West regions.
But the final make-up of the body is not yet set in stone. The new assembly still has to elect co-chairs from its ranks when it meets for the first time in July.
FULL STORY
Meet the freshly elected people who ‘will get treaty done’ in Victoria (By Rachael Dexter and Jack Latimore, The Age)
Raising the age a priority for newly elected First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria leaders (The Guardian)
