John MULLAHY (Glen Waverley)
(15:23): I acknowledge the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung people as the traditional owners of the land on which we are meeting, and I pay my respects to their elders, past and present. I acknowledge the Wurundjeri and the Bunurong people as the traditional owners and custodians of the land that makes up my district. It is an honour to rise in support of the Statewide Treaty Bill 2025, a historic step to right the oldest and deepest wrong in our state’s story. This bill is not only about law or recognition; it is about truth, respect and the act of finally placing First Peoples at the centre of Victoria’s future, where they have always belonged. At its core this bill recognises something simple yet powerful: sovereignty was never ceded, and justice delayed for more than two centuries must now be delivered.
Victoria as we know it was built on lands taken without consent or treaty. Colonisation was not a peaceful meeting of cultures, it was a violent rupture that tore families, languages and spiritual connections apart. The treaty process asks us to listen, truly listen, to the voices of First Nations Victorians, whose laws and cultures have guided this land for more than 60,000 years. And as we listen, we must reckon with the truth of how British colonialism shaped not just this continent but the world.
Colonisation was not an accident of history, it was an ideology that justified exploitation, theft and violence under the banner of civilisation. Its reach was global, from South Asia to the Caribbean, Africa and Ireland, where communities were uprooted, resources plundered and self-determination denied. It is no coincidence that the same British Empire which declared this land terra nullius – empty – also presided over famine and eviction in Ireland, my ancestral homeland. In the 1840s, as blight ravaged Irish crops, the British government, blinded by arrogance and ideology, refused to act. While men, women and children starved, ships laden heavy with food left Irish ports for the empire. Over a million people died and 2 million fled, including to these shores. It was not a natural disaster but a moral failure of colonialist ideology, the prioritisation of profit over humanity. That famine taught us a timeless truth: colonialism is not simply history, it is a system that devalues lives deemed lesser, suppresses culture and strips people of their sovereignty.
The same empire that treated Irish lives as expendable dismissed the First Peoples of this land as invisible. Both were ruled through arrogance and fear, seen as problems to be managed or civilised. In Ireland penal laws crushed faith, language and identity. In Australia the same mindset denied Aboriginal people any rights to their own country. Both endured dispossession and trauma, yet both held on to story, song and spirit. They survived what the empire sought to erase. As an Irish Australian, I see in treaty not just justice for First Peoples but a shared lesson in resilience and renewal. The Irish rebuilt through memory and song, rebellion and community. The First Peoples of Victoria have done the same, preserving languages once banned, passing down knowledge and fighting for land, truth and self-determination. The Statewide Treaty Bill honours that spirit. It stands on the shoulders of those who refuse to be silent – generations of Aboriginal leaders who demanded governments listen.
This bill gives effect to the first treaty between First Nations people and the Victorian government, and it builds the framework for those to come. It lays the foundation for a future built on partnership and respect, one where Aboriginal Victorians help shape the policies that shape their lives. But before treaty, there must be truth. The Yoorrook Justice Commission, Australia’s first truth-telling process, allowed survivors to speak and forced the state to confront its history. Truth-telling, like Ireland’s oral tradition, is sacred. It is how people remember who they are and how they change. We cannot turn away from what the truth shows: the massacres, the forced removals, the missions, the incarceration rates and the health gaps that still flow from colonisation and from government policy.
For those of us of Irish descent, this moment carries deep meaning. We know what it is like to have a culture suppressed and our language silenced. We know the silence that follows empire and the strength it takes to break it. We know the wound colonisation leaves behind, and because we know, we stand in solidarity with those who have suffered the same. If Ireland’s famine taught us anything, it is that conscience must never be dulled by distance or indifference. The ships that left Cork while people starved remind us that power without compassion is tyranny. This bill ensures Victoria does not repeat that mistake.
Some say treaty divides us. I say it unites us in honesty and respect. You cannot build a fair future on a lie. Acknowledging the First Peoples of this land and their enduring sovereignty does not diminish anyone else’s belonging, it strengthens our shared one. When most of Ireland finally won independence, it did not end hardship, but it meant Ireland’s future was at last decided by Irish hands. So too must the First Peoples of Victoria have a voice in shaping theirs. That is not division, that is dignity.
The Statewide Treaty Bill 2025 is an act of moral leadership. It honours the world’s oldest living cultures and acknowledges the shared wounds of empire. It tells our children we are not afraid of truth, that we can face our past and rise stronger for it. Let us not be timid – let us be worthy. When the story of the 60th Parliament is told, may it be said that we chose reconciliation over denial, justice over convenience and courage over silence. Let this be our legacy: a Victoria where the ghosts of colonialism and past government policy no longer dictate our future but where respect and partnership light the way forward. I commend the bill to the house.