Ah, the Treaty in Victoria, Australia's bold experiment insupposed reconciliation, or a vacuum cleaner of wokeness sucking up every spare cent from the state's coffers? Leith van Onselen's piece in Macrobusiness.com.au paints a grim picture: a debt-riddled state handing over powers to a new Indigenous assembly that could balloon costs, complicate governance, and even tank credit ratings. It's a depressing take, especially with that fresh Wurundjeri native title claim dropping like a cultural bombshell over Melbourne.
Victoria's Statewide Treaty Bill 2025, passed on October 30, 2025, after a decade of negotiations, is Australia's first formal state-level treaty with First Peoples. At its core:
Gellung Warl (Tip of the Spear): An umbrella body making the First Peoples' Assembly (elected by ~4,200 Indigenous voters in 2023) a permanent advisory gig. They get to consult on laws affecting First Nations folks, manage cultural events (like NAIDOC Week), confirm Aboriginal identity, and dole out community grants. No overruling Parliament, but ministers must explain if they've ignored their input.
Truth-Telling and Accountability: A new body (Nyerna Yoorrook Telkuna) weaves Indigenous history into school curricula (Prep to Year 10), including "enduring harm" from colonisation. Another (Nginma Ngainga Wara) monitors government on Closing the Gap targets, like health and justice disparities, without enforcement teeth.
Self-Determination Fund: Sets up future local treaties, potentially with compensation, but nothing's locked in yet.
This all stems from the 2016 Advancing the Treaty Process with Aboriginal Victorians Act, born from the Uluru Statement's call for Voice, Treaty, Truth. Victoria's ~45,000 Indigenous residents (under 1% of the population) get a louder say, but it's advisory, not a "second parliament," just yet. Critics like Robert Gottliebsen in The Australian warn it'll bog down bureaucracy, forcing every bill through an Indigenous lens, echoing the Voice referendum's 54% "No" in Victoria. Fair point: post-referendum, it feels like déjà vu.
Van Onselen nails the fiscal angle, Victoria's already nursing a $135 billion debt pile, with S&P lurking for a downgrade. No explicit "treaty tax," but the bill's price tag is no pocket lint.
Total so far? Over $776M across four bodies (Assembly, Treaty Authority, Yoorrook, Gellung Warl). That's real dough, enough to fund 10,000 hospital beds or fix half the state's potholes. X chatter's buzzing with gripes: "Grift elected by 5%," or "Money laundering via charity corp." Opposition Leader Brad Battin claims it'll hit "billions."
Credit rating risk? Plausible. Moody's and pals hate "uncertain liabilities" — if compensation schemes snowball (as in NT land deals), it could nudge Victoria from Aa2 to Aa3.
Timing's everything, that Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung claim hit the Federal Court on November 7, 2025, blanketing 10,420 sq km of Naarm (Melbourne) and surrounds: Werribee River west, Mount Baw Baw east, Great Dividing Range north, Mordialloc Creek south. Lead claimant Darcy Cohen-Hunter calls it "generations in the making" for cultural rights, access, fishing, ceremonies on public land only. No evictions; private homes safe, for now.
Premier Jacinta Allan backs it: "Constructive co-management." But sceptics on X smell a rat: Overlaps with Boonwurrung claims could spark tribal turf wars, and "co-management" means endless consultations jacking up project costs (think pipelines delayed by cultural heritage checks). If granted, it's decision-making input on Crown land, parks, rivers etc, potentially layering more red tape on a state already "ungovernable," per Gottliebsen.
$70M/year for advice feels steep when hospitals triage non-Indigenous patients behind "fast-track" policies. And post-Voice "No," it rankles as elite virtue-signalling by a low-turnout assembly. X users are savage: "Divisive grift" or "End of world? Sun still rose."
No, even worse; added to every other woke insanity, it spells the collapse of Victoria. Time to wake up before it is too late! What would the Founding Fathers of Australia think of all this woke "business"?
https://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2025/11/victorians-to-pay-treaty-tax/