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About the Treaty Authority

The Treaty Authority:  

  • Oversees Treaty negotiations in Victoria  
  • Makes sure parties follow the rules in the Treaty Negotiation Framework  
  • Assists parties to make agreements 
  • Helps to resolve disputes related to Treaty-making and 
  • Carries out research to support and inform Treaty negotiations. 

The Treaty Authority was established by agreement between the State of Victoria and the First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria. It is independent of the State and the First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria – it is not subject to direction and control of a Minister (or anyone else) and has a budget guaranteed by law. 

The Treaty Authority’s key functions are set out in legislation, including overseeing Treaty-making in Victoria. Other formal agreements, including the Treaty Negotiation Framework and the Treaty Authority Agreement, set out more detailed information about how we work and our role in Treaty-making.  

In the Treaty Authority Agreement, the State of Victoria committed to providing ongoing funding sufficient to ensure that the Treaty Authority can undertake its functions and duties effectively and exercise its powers under the Treaty Authority Agreement, the Treaty Negotiation Framework, the Advancing the Treaty Process with Aboriginal Victorians Act 2018 (Vic) and the Treaty Authority and Other Elements Act 2022 (Vic).  

The Treaty Authority’s ongoing funding is secured through a special appropriation in the Treaty Authority and Other Elements Act 2022 (Vic). This ongoing funding ensures the Treaty Authority can perform its functions independently from and free from any perception of interference by any party to the Treaty process. 

The Treaty Authority is led by five respected Treaty Authority Members, all First Nations people, who were appointed through an independent process and have been brought on board for their experience, expertise and cultural knowledge to oversee Treaty-making.  

The Treaty Authority Members are:  

  • Jidah Clark, Djab Wurrung (Chair)  
  • Petah Atkinson, Yorta Yorta  
  • Thelma Austin, Gunditjmara  
  • Andrew Jackomos, Yorta Yorta 
  • Duean White, Biripi  

The Treaty Authority Members follow Standards of Conduct when they carry out their roles, including when making decisions. The standards include things like being impartial and independent, acting fairly and with integrity and respect, being culturally safe, managing conflicts of interest and being transparent. 

Read the Standards of Conduct here.

 

Statewide Treaty 

For the first time in Australia’s history, a Treaty has been signed with First Peoples. The Treaty commenced on 12 December, at a ceremonial exchange between the State of Victoria and First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria at a public event.

The Statewide Treaty was negotiated by the First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria and the State of Victoria. The Statewide Treaty Act 2025 (the Act) establishes a new entity Gellung Warl which will evolve from Victoria’s successful First Peoples’ Assembly.

You can find out more about Victoria’s Treaty here. 

Read Statewide Treaty here. 

Statewide Treaty covers statewide matters that impact all First Peoples living in Victoria, such as improving health, education and justice. This is different from local Traditional Owner Treaties which reflect Traditional Owners’ aspirations and priorities for their own Country. 

Stolen Generations members can be represented through the First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria.   

All Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people living in Victoria are eligible to enrol and vote for their local Member of the First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria. This includes Stolen Generations members living in Victoria.  

Traditional Owner Treaties 

Traditional Owner Treaties can be negotiated by Traditional Owners about their aspirations and priorities over their Country including their traditional lands and waters.  

Unlike Statewide Treaty that is about statewide matters that affect all Victorian First Peoples, local Traditional Owner Treaties relate to matters that are important to Traditional Owners in their own local areas.  

Traditional Owners have the right to speak for Country, which gives them the power to negotiate a Treaty. They also have rights under international human rights law to self-determine their own political, legal, social and cultural affairs.  

Any Traditional Owner group in Victoria can let the Treaty Authority know that it wants to be part of Treaty. To notify us of your interest in being a part of negotiations, a group must confirm how it satisfies the Minimum Standards as set out in the Treaty Negotiation Framework. The first step is to have a yarn with the Treaty Authority.  

There can only be one Traditional Owner Treaty that covers any particular part of Victoria. This means that if more than one group wants to negotiate a Treaty in the same area, they have to come together as a Delegation to negotiate with the State.  

A Traditional Owner Treaty is negotiated by what is known as a ‘Treaty Delegation’. This might include one Traditional Owner group or multiple groups on the Negotiations Register who come together to form a Delegation for the same area.  

If more than one Traditional Owner group wants to negotiate a Treaty over the same Country, they have to come together to form a single Treaty Delegation.  

A Traditional Owner Treaty can only be negotiated by a Delegation, which is made up of one or more Traditional Owner groups on the Negotiations Register. To be a part of Treaty negotiations, individuals will be represented as a member of a Traditional Owner group in the delegation.  

We know that for some Traditional Owner groups, forming a Delegation to negotiate a Treaty over the same Country may be challenging and take time.  

We recognise that it won’t always be easy to work through the ongoing impacts of colonisation and dispossession, so the process aims to provide time and support to allow different groups to self-determine who will negotiate a Treaty in the same area.  

The Treaty Authority can help to resolve disputes about forming a Delegation, including when different groups are unable to find a way forward together.  

There is no time limit for negotiating a Traditional Owner Treaty. This is the first time Treaties will be negotiated in Australia, and we expect it will take time.   

The Treaty Negotiation Framework sets out the standards that all Traditional Owner groups must meet to enter Treaty negotiations.  

The Minimum Standards are grouped into four categories:  

  • Land and Waters: A Traditional Owner group must identify the Country over which they intend to negotiate a Traditional Owner Treaty. 
  • Community: A Traditional Owner group must state how it identifies collectively, and provide a list of members. It must also identify its governance structure.  
  • Leadership: A Traditional Owner group must choose and authorise its negotiating team, and identify the group’s decision-making processes. 
  • Inclusivity: A Traditional Owner group must identify its processes to: 

          – Ensure the group is inclusive of all its members  

          – Uphold Cultural Authority  

          – Educate and consult its members regarding Treaty negotiations and 

          – Seek the collective support of its members about any Treaty negotiation outcomes. 

Traditional Owners in Victoria will negotiate Treaties that reflect specific aspirations and priorities for their communities and traditional lands and waters.  

Treaties might include things like:  

  • Traditional relationships with land and waters including reparations, entitlements and management  
  • Strengthening culture and language  
  • Economic underpinnings for caring for Country and 
  • Business development opportunities. 

The Treaty Authority has a Negotiations Register. Groups can register their interest with the Treaty Authority.  The first step is to have a yarn with our Members. 

A family can register its interest. Any Traditional Owner group that is satisfied it meets the Minimum Standards in the Treaty Negotiation Framework can make a notification to go onto the Negotiations Register. There is no requirement to be incorporated.  

The Self-Determination Fund has been set up to support Traditional Owners to get Treaty-ready. They can help Traditional Owner groups who need support to come together, to form their aspirations for Treaty, to undertake a range of activities to meet the Minimum Standards in the Treaty Negotiation Framework and to prepare to enter negotiations.  

Contact the Self-Determination Fund on 1800 371 103 or on [email protected] 

The First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria, which finalised the Statewide Treaty with the State Government in 2025, focused on establishing mechanisms for First Peoples representation and governance in the Statewide Treaty. The Assembly stated that this included, amongst other matters, keeping government accountable, including on implementing Yoorrook’s recommendations. The Yoorrook Justice Commission’s findings have provided an official public record, which may assist generations of future treaty-making.

General

A Treaty is a formal agreement between First Peoples and the Government.  

In Victoria, there are two types of Treaties that can be negotiated – Statewide Treaty to benefit all First Peoples living in Victoria and a series of individual local Traditional Owner Treaties.  

The Treaty Negotiation Framework is the agreement between the First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria and the Victorian Government that sets out the rules for Treaty-making in Victoria.  

The Treaty Authority is responsible for making sure that negotiating parties follow the rules in the Treaty Negotiation Framework.  

Negotiations for the Statewide Treaty have concluded and the Statewide Treaty is now in effect. Negotiations took nearly twelve months. began in January 2025. So far, no negotiations have started yet for individual Traditional Owner Treaties. 

The Treaty Authority manages a database known as the Negotiations Register.  

The Register is where public and private information is held about Treaty negotiations. This includes public information such as who is negotiating a Treaty, the Country it will cover and the status of negotiations.  

If you are a Traditional Owner group that wants to negotiate a Treaty over your Country, the Register is also where you will submit your forms and supporting information to begin the process.  

Not all information about Treaty negotiations will be public.  

The Treaty Authority needs to make some information public to uphold its accountabilities under the Treaty Negotiation Framework. We will tell First Peoples parties what information about them we need to release, and they will be able to review and agree to the wording beforehand.  

The Treaty Authority will uphold and observe Indigenous Data Sovereignty and Data Governance principles to the fullest extent possible having regard to applicable laws.  

We will protect the knowledge and information (data) we receive from First Peoples parties and participants. We know some cultural knowledge is sacred and should not be shared widely. We’ll ask Traditional Owners to identify this knowledge and tell us if specific protections are needed for it.  

The term Minimum Standards comes from the Treaty Negotiation Framework.  

All parties who want to negotiate a Treaty must meet the Minimum Standards before they can enter negotiations – this includes the State of Victoria, the First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria and Traditional Owner groups.  

The Minimum Standards are about:  

  • Land and waters  
  • Community  
  • Leadership and 
  • Inclusivity.   

As part of Treaty negotiations, parties must agree on a culturally appropriate dispute resolution process and ways to enforce the Treaty if a party breaches it. These enforcement processes may depend on the content of Treaties.

A Statewide Treaty may create new ways to enforce Treaties.

It also has to be clear in a Treaty that parties can’t start legal action until the dispute resolution process agreed in the Treaty has been followed by the parties.

Under the Treaty Negotiation Framework, while parties are negotiating a Treaty, they can make an Interim Agreement or several Interim Agreements.

An Interim Agreement could be about a particular subject matter that the parties want to discuss and agree on early in their negotiations.

The parties will continue to negotiate on other topics after an Interim Agreement has been reached.

Once the parties reach agreement on the terms of a Treaty, the Treaty needs to be formalised under the Treaty Negotiation Framework.

To formalise a Treaty:

  • First Peoples’ Negotiating Parties (e.g. a Delegation) need to seek the support of their members to the Treaty
  • all parties need to demonstrate their agreement to the Treaty and notify the Treaty Authority
  • the Treaty Authority will publish a statement that the Treaty has been formally agreed.

In Canada, modern Treaties contain mechanisms for dispute resolution. These typically involve a commitment from the parties to try and resolve disputes informally, rather than through litigation.

If informal dispute resolution doesn’t work, the parties may try and resolve the dispute through a staged approach involving:

  • formal, collaborative negotiations between the parties
  • facilitated discussions with the help of a neutral, independent facilitator
  • final adjudication through arbitration or judicial proceedings.

The Treaty Authority acknowledges First Peoples as sovereign peoples throughout the lands and waters now known as Victoria and across Australia. We pay deep respect to all Traditional Owners, their lands, waters and skies, their Elders and ancestors, languages, family and clan groups, and their Lore, Law, customs, traditions and spiritual connections.

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