2023 Victorian First Peoples' Assembly election

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2023 Victorian First Peoples' Assembly election
Flag of Victoria (Australia).svg
  2019 13 May – 3 June 2023Next 

22 seats elected
10 seats appointed
Registered7000+
Turnout~4200 (~60% of enrollment, ~10% of voting age population)

The 2023 Victorian First Peoples' Assembly election, advertised as the 2023 Treaty election, was held June 2023 to elect 22 members to the First Peoples' Assembly in the Australian state of Victoria. The election filled 22 of 32 seats to the body, which was charged with the responsibility of negotiating a treaty between the state's government and its Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population.

Contents

Only Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people living in Victoria and at least 16 years of age were eligible to enroll to vote in the election - a population around 45,000. [1] Compared to the previous election in 2019, enrollments more than tripled from ~2000 to ~7000. [2] Between the 2019 and 2023 elections, there was 2 by-elections held to fill vacant seats after 2 resignations.

The election had 75 candidates across 22 regional seats. 10 from the metropolitan region (where most of Victoria's population lives), and 3 each from the Northwest, Southwest, Northeast and Southeast regions. A further 11 reserved seats were appointed by local Registered Aboriginal Parties within Victoria. [2] 90% of eligible voters did not participate in the election.

Aside from making a treaty with the Victorian Government on behalf of the First Peoples of Victoria, other priorities of the Assembly will be advocating for reform to Victoria's bail laws and raising the age of criminal responsibility in the state. [3]

If the 2023 Australian Indigenous Voice referendum was successful, the Assembly might be a point of contact between Victorian First Peoples and the Indigenous Voice to Parliament, and might elect the Victorian representatives to the national body. The Assembly could shift its role in the future and act as a Voice in Victoria, giving advice to state Parliament on the basis that 10% of the eligible population voted for it to do so. [2] According to The Assembly website the Assembly will also take a lead role in administration of the Self Determination Fund provided by the Victorian (Labor) Government. Up to $200,000 is available to successful applicants to assist in negotiations, what role the Assembly plays in approving and monitoring the distributions is unclear, presumably strong conflict of interest rules will be applied in dispensing taxpayer provided funds.

Results

Of the 22 elected members, 11 were elected for the first time, the remainder were re-elected. [3]

The 2 outgoing co-chairs (Aunty Geraldine Atkinson (Elected North East Area 2019) and Marcus Stewart - (Appointed not Elected in 2019) ) did not re-contest their roles, so new co-chairs were elected. [2] Rueben Berg (Appointed) and Ngarra Murray (Elected - Metro Area, Elected to the Metro-Area in 2019) were chosen as new co-chairs. This would be their 2nd term in the Assembly (having been re-elected or appointed in 2023), and first as co-chairs. [4]

Winners of the 2023 election were reported on the Assembly's website. [5] Numerical results were not declared to the public or electors.

North West Region

North East Region

South West Region

South East Region

Metro Region

Reserved (not directly elected) Seats

See also

Related Research Articles

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Jillian Gallagher AO is a Gunditjmara from Australia who has been the Chief Executive Officer of the Victorian Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation (VACCHO) since 2001. As a single mother in her twenties Gallagher was accepted into a training scheme for young Aboriginal people at the Museum of Victoria. She worked on the return of the Murray Black Collection and served as manager of the heritage branch of Minister for Aboriginal Affairs (Victoria) before taking up a position at VACCHO in 1998. In 2017 Gallagher was appointed Commissioner of the Victorian Treaty Advancement Commission until the voting period ended in October 2019. Gallagher was inducted into the Victorian Honour Roll of Women in 2009 and the Victorian Aboriginal Honour Roll in 2015. She was made an Officer of the Order of Australia in 2013.

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References

  1. "Census of Population and Housing - Counts of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians". Australian Bureau of Statistics. 2021. Retrieved 28 July 2023.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Meet the freshly elected people who 'will get treaty done' in Victoria". The Age. 18 June 2023. Retrieved 28 July 2023.
  3. 1 2 "Raising the age a priority for newly elected First Peoples' Assembly of Victoria leaders". The Guardian. 18 June 2023. Retrieved 28 July 2023.
  4. "Victoria's Treaty Assembly elects new leadership". First People's Assembly of Victoria. 28 June 2023. Retrieved 29 July 2023.
  5. "Thanks to all the mob who had a say in the Treaty Elections to decide who will negotiate Treaty in Victoria!". First Peoples' Assembly of Victoria. Retrieved 28 July 2023.