Vic Shadow Minister says state's treaty negotiations will be a ‘multi-billion-dollar process' with hundreds of millions already spent
The governments of Victoria Premier Jacinta Allan and former premier Daniel Andrews had spent at least $382 on negotiating a treaty with Indigenous Australians since 2016, according to analysis by the Herald Sun.
A Victorian government spokesperson refused to verify the masthead's figure, but they said $308 million had been poured into the treaty process since the 2020-2021 budget.
Referring to the almost $400 million that has reportedly been invested already, Mr Newbury took aim at the Allan government over the significant sum, questioning what it had been spent on.
'Victoria spent four hundred before we've even got to a treaty. So what have they spent the four hundred million on? 400 [million] without doing the treaty. I mean, that's why we're opposed to it as a Coalition," he told Sky News Australia on Monday.
'What the government we know will now do is spend billions of dollars on a treaty. If they're spending 400 [million] on the admin beforehand, we know it's gonna be a multi-billion dollar process.'
'And that's the government's hiding the figures in terms of the bigger treaty, because we know it's going to be a multi-billion dollar thing. It's wrong, we're opposed to it, we've said it loudly and clearly, and frankly Jacinta Allen owns this one and she's wrong.'
Meanwhile, fresh research has claimed costs related to treaty negotiations have soared to close to $800 million within the last decade.
Institute of Public Affairs (IPA) findings published on Sunday claimed that since 2016, the Victorian government had spent $776.2 million on programmes related to the treaty's development.
Titled 'Victoria's expensive, secretive, and divisive treaty process', the report found $100.6 million of the alleged spending had been committed in the 2026 financial year alone.
The research findings also said as much at 241 meetings regarding the development of a treaty could be held in the 2026 financial year, based on average meeting numbers in previous years.
The research comes after the Victorian government's Yoorrook Justice truth telling inquiry handed down its final report earlier this month following four years of proceedings.
The treaty is now set to progress to parliament, with Ms Allan and the state's First People's Assembly confirming that legislation to pass the agreement would be tabled after the winter break.
The state is also negotiating with local Indigenous communities on separate treaties.
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