Charles Pakana (VAN):

On Sunday, the 8th of September this year, local reconciliation groups, Reconciliation Banyule, Nillumbik Reconciliation and Montmorency First Nations Allies, banded together to deliver a much sought after and requested information session about the Victorian Treaty process for the broader community. Answering questions about the Treaty process were two members of the First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria. They were Bunurong and Trawoolwayi woman, Zoe Upton, and Yorta Yorta and Ulupna man, Barry Firebrace-Briggs. Acting as moderator of the event was me, just as I’ve done numerous times over the years across Victoria. I’ll point out up front that I was not paid by anybody, including the First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria, for that work.

Given that the event was widely promoted on social media, it wasn’t all that surprising that it received a fair degree of media attention. Although, when a Sky News journalist and camera operator turned up without having first gone through the appropriate journalistic protocols, we were admittedly a bit surprised. How that arrival and subsequent requests from the journalist were dealt with, I’ll talk about in just a couple of minutes. But the thing is that within 48 hours of the event, Sky News commentator, Peta Credlin, the perpetrator of the so-called, yet now publicly disproved, 26-page Uluru Statement from the Heart, took it upon herself to once again move forward with a barrage of incorrect and misleading comments that, as I’ve done before with Sky News commentators, I’ll seek to address. Here’s how the piece opened.

Peta Credlin:

The first, despite a national referendum rejecting an Indigenous Voice to the Parliament, many states are taking it upon themselves to introduce the Treaty and so-called truth-telling anyway. First out of the blocks, no surprises here, is Victoria.

Charles:

Okay, so just eight seconds in and I need to point out that while Peta is seeking to tie the Victorian Treaty process somehow to the referendum, she’s well and truly off the mark.

First up, this current Treaty process well and truly predates the Uluru Statement from the Heart and a call for a Voice, and this is predating it by at least a year. You see, it follows a 2016 call from the Victorian Aboriginal community for the Victorian government to start the Treaty process. Throwing in phrases such as, I quote, “Despite a national referendum, which rejected an Indigenous Voice to Parliament,” is clearly seeking to tie the two together as a single issue, and that is simply not the case. The Australian people voted on the 14th of October 2023 on the Voice to Parliament. They did not vote for truth-telling, they did not vote for Treaty. This is a totally different matter.

Just because multiple causes are fought for by Aboriginal people does not mean they are one and the same. And that attitude, and I will be generous here, skirts close to being racist, if not intentionally scaremongering and inflammatory. And come on, Peta, the referendum was a federal matter. This is something specific to Victoria, yet this is so rarely pointed out. And throwing truth-telling into the mix, here Peta is clearly referring to the Yoorrook Justice Commission, a Royal Commission charged with seeking evidence on Victoria’s true and hitherto whitewashed history. Again, nothing at all to do with the 2023 referendum for a Voice to Parliament.

Peta Credlin:

Over the weekend, a Treaty event billed as a public meeting, was held in the Melbourne suburb of Greensborough. Sky News reporter, Georgie Dickerson, went along to try and find out exactly what was happening.

Charles:

At this point, I’ll edit out about three minutes of on-camera interviews, all of which were quite supportive of learning more about the Treaty process. And credit to Sky News and to Georgie Dickerson, the Sky News journalist, for recording and broadcasting those comments. We’ll pick it up immediately following those three minutes, as Peta Credlin is joined by Jacinta Price, the federal Shadow Minister for Indigenous Australians.

Peta Credlin:

All right. For her take, I’m joined now by Shadow Minister for Indigenous Australians, Senator Price. Well, welcome. First of all, obviously, the media were blocked, but you can see from everyone turning up there, Jacinta, I don’t think there was one person that had any skepticism about a Treaty and I remind people at home, Victoria voted against the Voice last year, even woke Victoria. This is all done with public money. Why the secrecy?

Charles:

I’m just going to clarify that it was actually me who spoke to the journalist, Georgie Dickerson, about media presence at the event. So frankly, I’m the best person to comment on this. Media was not blocked from attending the event. As I have stated on the Sky News YouTube channel, I did advise Georgie that she was more than welcome to attend the event, just without cameras. She declined that offer. Even when some people at the event and involved in the event requested that no Sky News at all be admitted, I insisted that we should never bar the media, but agreed that filming was simply not appropriate. It had not been requested prior to the event, which does go against accepted professional media practice. Ultimately, the decision to not allow the camera operator at the event was mine, not the organizers, not the panelists, not the First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria. It was mine alone.

When Peta comments that she doubted there was anyone who had skepticism about Treaty at the event, well, all I can say is that if the journalist had taken up the offer to actually attend, they would’ve heard numerous questions asked that were highly skeptical. In addition, subsequent comments on social media from people who attended the event and are clearly against Treaty, once again, cast serious doubt on the validity of such comments from Peta Credlin.

I’m not going to dive into, quote, “It was all done with public money,” because frankly it was an event with the vast majority of support, not all, but the vast majority of support, being afforded on a volunteer basis. And once again, it’s nothing to do with the referendum. Do I sound like a broken record? It seems that I have to continue along that path. But we’ll now pick it up with Jacinta Price weighing in on the commentary.

Senator Jacinta Price:

Well, that’s exactly right. I mean that should be the first red flag so far in this process. It should have been made public, it’s a publicly funded event. This is going to affect all Victorians. You can see, absolutely see the naivety from those attending, but-

Charles:

Once again, not fully publicly funded. It was primarily voluntary. And naivety, well, better than ignorance, Senator. And what’s important to note is that all of those people to whom Georgie Dickerson spoke at the event on camera were simply demonstrating a thirst for knowledge. They wanted to know the information before they went off and started speaking about which they knew nothing at all. Isn’t that what we want our community to know? Don’t we want them to know the truth? Don’t we want them to know the facts? Or should they simply take the inaccurate information fed to them by certain elements of the media and act on that?

And the event was a public event, and if either the senator or Peta Credlin’s producers had bothered to do any research at all, they would’ve discovered very quickly that this was incredibly public. As public as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram can make it. The event was shared for weeks on social media and was shared, commented and actively promoted with community groups, local government authorities and individuals. Any thought that it was not public is simply wrong.

Senator Price:

What’s concerning is the lack of transparency in this process. We also know that the First Nations Assembly only had a 10% voter turnout to elect its members. So can it legitimately say it is a representative body of Indigenous Victorians?

Charles:

Well, I’d love to know where the 10% figure comes in, Senator Price. It’s wrong, absolutely wrong. At the last community elections held in 2023 for the First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria, that organization’s website states clearly that the electoral roll had more than tripled since the 2019 elections, to over 7,000 people eligible to vote. That equates to close on 20%. And according to my information, that figure has now increased to nearly 30%, significantly more than the 10% suggested by Senator Price. Bear in mind also that those people eligible to vote in the elections are voting only for about 20 of the 32 seats in the Assembly. The other 12 seats are reserved for the state’s Traditional Owner groups and are filled by duly elected members from those groups. All of a sudden that 10% and not representative argument put forward by Senator Price crumbles to pieces.

It’s also fairly disappointing to note at this point that the Shadow Minister for Indigenous Australians is either ignorant of certain facts about the Victorian Treaty process or is failing to share her knowledge of them. Specifically with regard to the ability for any Aboriginal Victorian or Torres Strait Islander to register a dispute or comment with the Treaty Authority on whether the First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria has met the minimum standards, which includes community representation in its ability to negotiate a Treaty with the state government. Those people who lodge a comment or a dispute do not even have to be registered to vote on the Aboriginal electoral roll. You can get no more democratic than that.

And bringing in the South Australian elections for a legislated voice, the Senator is definitely clutching at straws that have nothing whatsoever to do with the Victorian Treaty process.

Senator Price:

You can already hear the language being used by those attending is a real us-and-them approach. I mean, we are Australian citizens, Indigenous Victorians are Australian citizens. There shouldn’t be this us-and-them approach that certainly this process is ingraining, that division within communities.

Charles:

Here, Senator Price is unfortunately floundering for commentary of any real substance. Instead, she’s resorting to the rhetoric which proved so inflammatory and false during the referendum campaign of last year. I’ll also point out that, as evidenced in numerous interviews on Treaty I’ve conducted with the First People’s Assembly of Victoria, the state government, the Treaty Authority, and even local governments, there are clear and unified calls for Treaty to be healing and a cause for community cohesion. Claiming they divide by race is pure and utter ignorance of the facts.

Peta Credlin:

You can feel the game though. Get these state treaties up, don’t ask too many questions. Have these little forums. I mean 300 people in Melbourne, it’s not a big number to get along to something. And don’t let the media in.

Charles:

Once again, Peta, the media was not prohibited, just the camera, never the journalist.

Peta Credlin:

I’d be able to say as they will after that meeting, everyone was in support of it.

Charles:

You’re the only one saying that, Peta. Again, if your journalist had attended this meeting, that would have been all too clear.

Peta Credlin:

Push it through the parliament, you’ll get it through the Victorian Parliament and then the prime minister will be compelled, once there’s a number of states with a Treaty, to say, “Well, look, if all the states have got a Treaty, we really need one at a national level.” He won’t put that to a referendum and all of a sudden we’ll be where we voted we didn’t want to go this time last year.

Charles:

Just here, first of all, there’s no guarantee at all that the Treaty, once it’s negotiated, will even get through the Victorian Parliament and any comment that implies such is purely misleading. There is actually an extended negotiation period ahead for the First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria and the state government. And frankly, the state government has yet to even register with the Treaty Authority on this matter, which is the first step it has to take.

And again, reverting to the broken record requirement. This time last year, Peta, this country was not voting on Treaty, it was voting on a Voice to Parliament.

Senator Price:

Oh, yeah. It’s really deeply concerning stuff and especially when you’ve got a body that’s claiming to be a representative body with such a low voter turnout. It’s like this what’s underway in South Australia at the moment with their legislated Voice. Again, 10% voter turnout. Where’s that going to go to? You can’t suggest that with these sort of shady closed-door events, and this inability to provide transparency that this is actually going to be a true, democratic process that heads toward legislation and this legislation process. But you know, we all know, that Mr. Albanese is sitting in the background waiting for all these states to conduct their Treaty processes and then ram it on through. And Australians should be very concerned. This is going to affect every single one of us. But we know that there’s governance issues, there’s accountability issues with many organizations. Why would we want to extend that further through this process?

Charles:

Okay. Without wanting to rehash in details, low voter turnout based on her 10% claim, fact checked and wrong. Relating Victoria’s Treaty process to the South Australian legislated Voice, fact checked and wrong. Shady closed-door events, fact checked and wrong. We’re at three-for-three. And then dragging it back to a federal political argument as ammunition against the prime minister, senator, this has nothing to do with the federal government, nothing at all.

And it’s at this point, with little more than misinformation, misleading arguments, ignorance or withholding of facts, and rehashing of tired and untrue rhetoric coming forward from Peta Credlin and Senator Price on Sky News, we’ll leave this example of that network’s commentary as they embark upon a discussion about other issues.

Now, I’ll close off by saying that I do not believe that the Treaty process in Victoria is 100% correct. I have spoken to people about this and I have shared my views about this, but I, as an Aboriginal man, have voted in both elections for the First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria. I believe in what is going forward. As a voter in this country, do you necessarily believe in our system, that our system is the most accurate and most representative of systems? It’s hardly likely. No system devised by people will ever be perfect. But if every time we were simply to throw up our hands in dismay and say, “Well, it’s not representative, or it’s not the best possible system,” nothing ever would get done. Progress is made only by taking existing systems, existing infrastructures, and existing processes, moving forward with them to achieve the best result and refine as we proceed.

To all those people who are looking to learn more about the Treaty process in Victoria, I urge you to get onto the website for the First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria and start reading there. There is also a wealth of information on the Victorian Aboriginal News website and we’ve actually set up a new section of the website devoted entirely to Treaty.

If you have questions, we will answer them. We will speak to the people in the know, whether it’s at the state political level, whether it’s at the First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria, or within the Traditional Owner communities. We will take your questions and we will seek answers and we will share those answers. This process is open, it is transparent. I urge you to always educate yourself, and only when educated make an opinion.