Harry Hobbs and Lorne Neudorf

Much of the political momentum surrounding Indigenous rights quickly dissipated following the defeat of the Voice referendum in October 2023. Newly elected governments in the Northern Territory and Queensland abandoned their long-running treaty processes, while the federal government has remained conspicuously silent about a path forward. This is not the whole story, however. In South Australia, the government has maintained its commitment to the State’s First Nations Voice, despite early challenges and an unsuccessful attempt to repeal the legislation and dismantle the institution.

Developments in Victoria have also continued apace. Since November 2024, the First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria and the State government have engaged in negotiations aimed at reaching a Statewide Treaty. If concluded, it would mark the first formal treaty in Australian history: a watershed moment in the legal relationship between First Peoples and the state. As Patrick Dodson has observed, treaties that give effect to Indigenous self-determination and establish ‘mutually agreed terms for our relationship with the Australian government’, remain part of the nation’s ‘unfinished business’.

Lucas Lixinski

In mid-October 2021, the Joint Standing Committee on Northern Australia delivered ‘A Way Forward: Final report into the destruction of Indigenous heritage sites at Juukan Gorge’ (‘A Way Forward’, or ‘Report’). This Report makes recommendations to change Australian law to better safeguard First Nations identities and …

Hannah McGlade

The Joint Standing Committee on Northern Australia’s Inquiry into the destruction of Indigenous heritage sites at Juukan Gorge reported in October. Its report, ‘A Way Forward’ called for a new national framework of Aboriginal heritage protection co-designed with Aboriginal people. It recommended that the responsibility for Aboriginal cultural heritage, sitting …