Treaty demands to make Victorians second-class citizens

Special privileges based solely on race are at the heart of treaty demands from the so-called First People’s Assembly of Victoria.

The demands, which Premier Jacinta Allan has refused to rule out in a treaty, include land tax, stamp duty and council rate exemptions, interest-free home loans, and council positions reserved only for indigenous people. They would have privileges denied to other Victorians based on nothing but race.

These demands are inherently racist, and also reflect indigenous activist objectives detailed in a document put together by employees of the National Indigenous Australians Agency (NIAA) leaked to Senator Pauline Hanson’s office last year.

Equal rights for all, and special rights for none are the only fair approaches in a free democracy. There should be no special privileges for any Australian that other Australians do not have, especially when the only distinction is race. This is a betrayal of the generations of Australians who have fought for racial equality.

The assembly’s demands also included indigenous versions of history being imposed on Australian school students, taxpayer funding to “maintain” indigenous languages and culture, and taxpayer funding to address the “lack of visibility of Aboriginal culture” in Australia and around the world.

The notion that indigenous Australia is invisible in this country is ridiculous. It’s absolutely everywhere to be seen. We don’t need to waste any more taxpayer funds on that. It’s not the job of taxpayers to make any culture more visible than any other culture.

The real question is whether all Victorians will get a fair, equal, and meaningful say about these racist treaty demands. Non-indigenous Victorians certainly deserve a vote about whether or not they want to be second-class citizens in their own state, denied special privileges just because of their race.

Labor state governments are in denial over the results of the voice referendum, in which Australia not only overwhelmingly rejected the voice but also rejected indigenous exceptionalism, separatism, and racial division in all its forms. Labor in Victoria continues to pursue a treaty, Labor in South Australia persists with a state-based voice, Labor in New South Wales has just embarked on treaty "consultations"; and Labor in Queensland continues down its own ‘path to treaty’.

One Nation will be contesting every seat at the Queensland election in October, and if we’re successful in gaining the balance of power, the incoming government will get no part of its legislative agenda through Parliament unless it supports our repeal of the ‘path to treaty’ legislation.

This is an opportunity for Queensland LNP leader David Crisafulli to properly acknowledge the referendum result in his state and commit to supporting One Nation’s repeal of this divisive treaty law.