The Government has not pursued Treaty since the unsuccessful Voice referendum in 2023, and the Opposition has consistently opposed Treaty at the Federal level. Treaty is therefore unlikely to be pursued at the Federal level in the foreseeable future.

Following the 2025 election, Senator the Hon Malarndirri McCarthy, Minister for Indigenous Australians stated that it was time to consider the steps needed to begin a truth-telling process led by the Federal Government. The Senator said her government would be closely considering the recommendations of Victoria's Yoorrook Justice Commission. Former Greens the Hon Senator Dorinda Cox had been expected to reintroduce her Bill for a Truth and Justice Commission, however following her move to the ALP in June 2025, this seems unlikely.

The Government has recently shifted its focus to Closing the Gap and economic self determination for First Nations Australians. At the Garma Festival in August 2025, the Prime Minister announced a new First Nations Economic Partnership between the First Nations Economic Empowerment Alliance, the Coalition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Community Controlled Peak Organisations and the Federal Government (Address to Garma Festival, 2 August 2025) that builds on the commitments in the Closing the Gap Agreement.

With this announcement comes new funding that would seek to deliver the economic sovereignty that is fundamental to self-determination and secure the future of community controlled organisations and includes $75 million towards assisting native title holders to secure better deals and faster project approvals and $70 million towards supporting First Nations clean energy projects.

Treaty

Treaty negotiations will occur under the Treaty Negotiation Framework in the Advancing the Treaty Process with Aboriginal Victorians Act 2018 (Vic), which regulates how negotiations are conducted and what subject matter Treaty negotiations can cover. The Framework includes a requirement for both a Statewide Treaty and multiple local Treaties, to ensure that self-determination can be exercised by all First Peoples in Victoria collectively and individually by local Traditional Owner groups.

Treaty will be negotiated by the First Peoples' Assembly of Victoria (the Assembly), the democratically elected independent body representing Traditional Owners in Victoria. One of the Assembly's key objectives in Treaty negotiations is for decisions about First Nations communities, cultures, and lands to be made by First Nations people.

Statewide Treaty negotiations officially commenced in November 2024 with a Treaty Commencement Ceremony on Wurundjeri Country. The first local Treaty negotiations commenced on 28 May 2025, with the Dja Dja Wurrung Clans Aboriginal Corporation making formal notification to the Victorian Treaty Authority. The Treaty Authority will now work with Dja Dja Wurrung on preparations, before the State will be invited to participate in formal negotiations.

Truth

The Assembly has worked closely with the Yoorrook Justice Commission, Victoria's formal Truth-telling inquiry, to prepare submissions on injustices experienced by First Nations peoples in Victoria since colonisation. The Commission's final report, which makes more than 100 recommendations, was tabled 1 July 2025. Yoorrook Chair Professor Eleanor Bourke AM confirmed that many of the Commission's recommendations will inform Treaty negotiations, and highlighted the complementary nature of Truth and Treaty. Relevantly, the final report comprises both the:

• Yoorrook Truth Be Told report which provides a historical account of Victoria since colonisation, acknowledging the ongoing and embedded colonisation that exists within Victoria's contemporary institutions;
• Yoorrook for Transformation report which outlines a list of recommendations across a broad spectrum of policy areas including land, education, health, housing, economic prosperity, political life and access to records. The recommendations also call for reform through treaty process, self-determination, rights, accountability and redress.

Voice?

On 4 July 2025, the Government committed to expanding the powers of the Assembly through the Statewide Treaty Bill, proposed to be tabled in 2025. In a joint statement with the Assembly, the State acknowledged a proposal for the codification of the Assembly as a permanent statutory advisory body, that will operate as an "independent voice to the Victorian Parliament" It is proposed that going forward, the role of the Assembly will aim to strengthen First Nations peoples self-determination, rights and accountability, aligning with the key recommendations advanced by the Commission's report.

The NSW Government continues its consultation process with First Nations communities to determine if communities want a Treaty, and if so what form Treaty would take.

On 26 September 2024, the Government announced it had appointed its three Independent Treaty Commissioners: former senator Aden Ridgeway, academic Todd Fernando, and Koori Mail newspaper CEO Naomi Moran. The Commissioners will sit for two-year terms and conduct consultations with First Nations Communities and Traditional Owners in NSW, which are expected to begin in the later half of 2025. Twenty-seven regional conversation hubs will be set up for five days each in the bigger cities, with an additional 50 day-long sessions in communities within a two-hour drive of those hubs.

The NSW Government has confirmed it will consider all recommendations from the Treaty Commission, but will not progress beyond the consultation process until after the State election in early 2027. Opposition Leader Mark Speakman confirmed the NSW Coalition would not support a State Voice to Parliament, signposting that the party's focus would be on the "practical and urgent delivery of policies and programs in Closing the Gap partnerships". There was no comment on whether the Coalition would support Treaty.

Following election in October 2024, the Government delivered on its promise to stop work towards Treaty and Truth. In November 2024, the Path to Treaty Act 2023 (Qld) was repealed, and the First Nations Treaty Institute and Truth-telling and Healing Inquiry were also wound up. Queensland is no longer pursuing any form of Treaty or Truth, and is now the only jurisdiction that has not implemented a redress scheme as compensation for survivors of the Stolen Generation.

The First Nations Consultative Committee gave its Final Report into aspirations of First Nations people for a Voice in Queensland to the then-Labor Government in late 2023, but given the change in government the report is unlikely to be released any time soon.

WA is not engaged in any formal Treaty process, instead maintaining its policy of preferring to enter into Settlement Agreements with First Nations and Traditional Owner groups.

WA does not have a national Truth-telling Commission or Inquiry. The Government has created the Wadjemup Project in collaboration with the Whadjuk, Noongar and greater First Nations communities, aimed at understanding and acknowledging the history and ongoing impacts of First Nations incarceration and segregation on Wadjemup (Rottnest Island). The Project is still in its Truth-telling and Consultation stage.

On 27 May 2025, the WA Government announced the Stolen Generations Redress Scheme, with survivors now eligible for payments of up to $85,000 as compensation for being forcibly removed from their families.

The SA Government has not progressed Treaty or Truth, although it remains committed to restarting Treaty discussions this term. The SA Voice to Parliament made its inaugural address on 27 November 2024 covering the Voice's activities in the past year, most notably its establishment, contributions to Government legislation, and feedback provided on several bills in Parliament. The Voice is now working to understand First Nations communities' priorities, and it can support those priorities.

The SA Government remains committed to implementing the Uluru Statement from the Heart. In contrast, the Opposition do not support the Government's First Nations agenda. The next State election is in early 2026.

The Aboriginal Advisory Group continues to develop its advice and recommendations on the development and implement of Truth-telling in Tasmania. Interim advice from the Group includes the appointment of independent Commissioners to guide an Aboriginal-led process for Tasmanian Aboriginal people, which will receive funding in the 2025-26 State budget. However, the State Government will no longer progress Treaty.

Separately, the Land and Sea Aboriginal Corporation Tasmania has reached an agreement with the Tasmanian Government for the long-term lease and buy-back arrangement of abalone fishing rights. The agreement also recognises the cultural and social significance of the sea to Tasmanian First Nations Groups. Greater investment in commercial cultural fisheries was one of the recommendations in the Government's 2021 Pathway to Truth-telling and Treaty Report.