The Victorian opposition leader, John Pesutto, has refused to say when the Coalition decided it would withdraw its support for a treaty with the state’s Indigenous people, ending years of bipartisanship on the issue.
Pesutto on Monday told reporters the Coalition had discussed the issue internally and with stakeholders “on an ongoing basis for many months” before deciding to change its position.
“We felt that the time to make an announcement was now,” he said.
Pesutto said he did not believe treaty would “work” and that he had “concerns around secrecy” and divisiveness.
“There are clearly risks around how our community will feel more divided,” he said.
Pesutto said he had been “very concerned” to see “how traumatic the debate around the [Indigenous voice to parliament referendum] was for many Victorians”.
“I don’t want Victorians to have to go through that again,” he said.
Earlier on Monday, the Coalition spokesperson for Aboriginal affairs, Nationals leader Peter Walsh, told ABC Radio Melbourne the party had reached its new policy position last spring.
He also said the Coalition’s change in position was partly due to recent reports on the state’s cultural heritage laws. He said the process of getting an approved cultural heritage management plan by traditional owner groups was taking too long and impacting housing developments.
“We’re for protecting cultural heritage. We don’t believe the legislation is delivering for all Victorians,” Walsh said.
“What is treaty? That’s the great unknown that people don’t know. Lots of people would say ‘How can you have a treaty with yourself?’ Because we are all Australians.”
The premier, Jacinta Allan, said the opposition was using cultural heritage concerns to “crab walk away” from the treaty process and accused Pesutto of keeping the position change a secret for months.
“If there’s a change in the direction you’re taking, you should be upfront with the Victorian community and once that decision has been made, explain that decision,” she said.
“Not cloak it in this secrecy that we’ve seen for months and months.”
In 2022, the opposition backed a bill to establish an independent authority to oversee the state’s treaty negotiations. At the time, Walsh told parliament it was a “myth” that only the Labor party supported a treaty with the state’s First Nations people.
Speaking on Sky News on Sunday, he said “things have changed”.
Victoria’s First People’s Assembly said the Coalition’s decision was “disappointing, but not surprising”.
“What will the announcement mean? Not much really,” it said in a statement.
“Of course, we would have liked to have kept Treaty above party politics and our door will remain open to politicians of all persuasions, but there is a clear path to Treaty ahead of us.”
Rueben Berg, the co-chair of the assembly, told the ABC he first heard about the opposition’s policy change via media reports on Walsh’s Sky News interview.
Berg said the state’s cultural heritage legislation was “not a perfect system” but argued traditional owner groups had not been resourced properly to undertake their decision-making role under the legislation.
He said the treaty process could help boost the resources of traditional owner groups.
The Coalition joins several political parties to walk back support for treaty after the defeat of the referendum for a federal Indigenous voice.
In Queensland, the Liberal National party withdrew bipartisan support for a treaty process and the New South Wales Labor government said it was assessing its next steps.
But unlike other states, Victoria’s treaty process is already under way – negotiations are on track to begin this year. Allan told Guardian Australia in December that legislation would have to pass parliament once a treaty – or several treaties – was agreed to.
The Greens leader, Samantha Ratnam, said it was now incumbent on the government to work with the minor party and other progressive crossbenchers to deliver a treaty.
“I’m really confident that there’s support in this parliament to deliver the treaty process,” she said.
