NT CLP government 'dismantles' treaty plans, ending seven-year process
In short:
The Northern Territory's Country Liberal Party (CLP) government has confirmed it has discontinued the treaty process in the territory, which was triggered by Territory Labor in 2018.
The decision has been met with disappointment by long-term fighters for a treaty.
What's next?
The CLP says it will instead focus on restoring local control to remote community councils.
After seven years, millions of dollars and thousands of kilometres of travel, the Northern Territory government has officially ended the process of forging a treaty in the NT.
Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro said the new Country Liberal Party (CLP) government was no longer pursuing plans for a treaty with Aboriginal people, which Territory Labor began in 2018.
"We've never supported a treaty, so that's all been dismantled under our government," she said in an interview with Stateline NT.
Lia Finocchiaro says the CLP has never supported a treaty.
"Our focus is on local government reform — we've always been clear about that."
In a further statement, Aboriginal Affairs Minister Steve Edgington confirmed that the former treaty commissioner Tony McAvoy's treaty recommendations would be shelved.
"There is no funding allocated and there are no plans for the recommendations from the former treaty commissioner's report to be implemented," Mr Edgington said.
While exactly how much funding was spent on the treaty process over the past seven years remains unclear, the costs of setting up a treaty commission and treaty office cost millions.
Steve Edgington has confirmed the recommendations made in a 2022 treaty report will not be implemented. (ABC News: Hamish Harty)
"Under the former Labor Government, territory taxpayers forked out $5.3 million for the Treaty Commission/Treaty Office between 2018-19 and 2023-24," Mr Edgington said.
Consultations alone cost around $4 million, and included thousands of kilometres of travel by staff of the former Treaty Commission to various Aboriginal communities across the NT.
Political leaders react with disappointment
Opposition Leader Selena Uibo, a former treaty minister under the former Labor government, said the abandonment of treaty ignored 30 years of advocacy in the NT.
"It's extremely disappointing, but unfortunately not a surprise, that the CLP government has completely scrapped any commitment to Territorians around a treaty process," she said.
Selena Uibo says she isn't suprised by the CLP's decision to no longer pursue a treaty. (ABC News: Jayden O'Neill)
"I know that, particularly in parts of my electorate of Arnhem, that treaty is a constant conversation … and now we have the CLP government who has closed up all ears, all mind, all heart, about what treaty could look like in the territory."
Ms Uibo did not directly answer if she regretted not getting the process further along during Labor's two terms in power, but said she believed the party made "great inroads around self-determination".
Arnhem Land independent politician Yiŋiya Guyula, a long-term advocate for treaty in the NT and Yolŋu traditional owner, described the CLP's decision as "saddening" and "ignorant".
Yiŋiya Guyula says he's disappointed by the NT government's decision to scrap plans for treaty. (ABC News: Peter Garnish)
"They need to understand, they need to listen, and accept the fact that they are doing a lot of damage when they say 'no'," Mr Guyula said.
"You remove treaty and you're still standing on us, walking all over us — that's why we need treaty, to get [the government] off our backs.
"Let the treaty go on, let us have a treaty — let's walk together side by side."
Instead of a treaty, the CLP has repeatedly said its key policy to empower Aboriginal communities will revolve around restoring local control to remote community councils.
"Our government is focused on empowering Aboriginal communities to have a greater say on the issues which impact them," Mr Edgington said.
Path to treaty was fraught, controversial
In 2018, then-chief minister Michael Gunner announced that his government was willing to negotiate a treaty or treaties between the territory government and Aboriginal people.
Michael Gunner agreed in 2018 to set up a treaty with Aboriginal people . (ABC News: Che Chorley)
He signed an agreement to do so with the NT's four Aboriginal land councils, on the 30th anniversary of former prime minister Bob Hawke's failed promise for a federal treaty in 1988.
Following these early steps, the path towards a treaty in the territory was at times rocky.
Inaugural treaty commissioner, Mick Dodson, was appointed to the role in 2019, but later resigned following allegations of verbal abuse against a woman at a football match.
In 2023, the then-NT Labor government quietly closed down the Treaty Commission office.
That decision came just months after the commission handed down its final report recommending the path on how to implement a treaty in the territory.
Those recommendations were never implemented by the former Labor government, which tried to fire up the process towards a treaty again last year, before it lost the NT election.