Victoria’s Treaty: Democracy Trampled by the Political Class, By James Reed

Victoria is hurtling toward an Indigenous treaty, and yet the irony could not be starker. Just months ago, the people of Victoria voted no on the Voice to Parliament. Democracy spoke. The message was unmistakable. And now, the political class is barrelling ahead anyway, as if that verdict were mere background noise.

This is contempt in action. Not a slip. Not an accident. Contempt. When politicians decide that the will of the people is optional, they aren't leading, they are usurping. They are treating democracy as a suggestion rather than a binding framework. And this matters far more than whether you personally support the treaty or not. Because democracy isn't about getting your way; it's about following the rules that give all policies legitimacy in the first place.

Supporters of the treaty, take note: respecting the electorate does not weaken your cause; it strengthens it. True legitimacy comes from consent, not bypass. When the political elite pretends the people's voice doesn't count, they are creating cynics and fuelling polarisation. They are telling ordinary Australians that the system exists for politicians, not citizens. That is a recipe for instability, mistrust, and disengagement.

The deeper problem is cultural: a class of politicians who believe their moral or intellectual superiority grants them the right to overrule the electorate. They lecture, legislate, and accelerate reforms — "for the greater good" — while the citizenry is treated like a nuisance. History is full of warnings about what happens when the elite believes itself untouchable. The result is not progress. It is resentment. It is cynicism. It is the slow erosion of a free society.

Victoria's treaty debate is a test. Not of reconciliation alone, but of democracy itself. If the political class cannot honour the people's verdict, even while pursuing a cause they consider noble, then what protects the voters? What protects the rules that keep society fair? Reconciliation without consent is coercion. Progress without legitimacy is hollow.

The lesson is urgent: democracy is not a speed bump for policy ambitions. It is the foundation. To bypass it is to flirt with contempt, and the citizens of Victoria, and Australia as a whole, will not forget.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-09-09/victoria-treaty-legislation-parliment-first-peoples/105749692