In October 2023, Australians decisively rejected the Indigenous Voice to Parliament. Nationally, roughly 60% voted No. In Victoria, the most progressive mainland state and one expected to deliver a stronger Yes, 54.1% still voted No (about 2.18 million votes against 1.85 million Yes). The referendum was part of the Uluru Statement's "Voice, Treaty, Truth" package. Voters were asked only about the Voice, but the broader agenda of race-based constitutional recognition, treaty-making, and institutionalised "truth-telling" was well understood. The clear national and Victorian verdict was rejection of that framework.
Victoria's Labor government ignored it.
Documents reported by The Australian show roughly $72 million in publicly funded grants bankrolling the state's treaty process, including substantial payments to Gellung Warl (the new First Peoples' representative body). One detailed accounting lists ten grants to Gellung Warl alone between mid-2023 and September 2025 totalling $65 million, starting small and quickly scaling into repeated multi-million-dollar transfers of $6.8m, $8.6m and $9m. Additional earlier grants went to other Indigenous organisations for "treaty engagement," "governance programs," and "Traditional Owner Nation-building support." The same reporting notes a $545,000 bill for a treaty celebration at John Cain Arena and recurring event costs (the headline highlighted $45,000-a-year events).
This sits on top of years of prior spending. Analyses of budget papers and annual reports put the cost of treaty negotiations and related "self-determination" work since 2016 in the range of $300–380 million (government figures cite about $308 million since 2020–21; some independent tallies go higher when broader line items are included). The new Statewide Treaty Act 2025 locks in ongoing funding for Gellung Warl that rises toward $70–72 million a year, with capital allocations on top. Over a decade the body alone is projected by some costings to approach or exceed $900 million before any direct community programs. Victoria has now become the first Australian jurisdiction to enact a formal treaty and a permanent race-based advisory structure with these powers and budgets.
The timing and fiscal context make the decision especially stark. Victoria already carries among the highest state debts in the country; net debt well over $160 billion and heading toward $200 billion, with interest alone costing around $24 million a day. Hospitals, schools, roads, and debt servicing compete for the same revenue. Against that backdrop, the government has funded elaborate opening and closing ceremonies, public messaging campaigns, websites, engagement sessions, and a new permanent bureaucracy whose members and processes operate with limited ordinary accountability (elements of FOI exemption and privileges akin to cabinet-in-confidence have been noted).
Supporters describe the treaty as historic recognition, practical self-determination, and a path to better outcomes. Critics see a government proceeding with a model voters had just rejected at the national level, creating a race-based parallel structure, and doing so at a time of severe fiscal strain. The $72 million grant figure, the $545,000 arena event, the multi-hundred-million-dollar negotiation bill, and the locked-in $70 million annual operating cost are concrete numbers, not abstractions. They represent real trade-offs for a state already paying tens of millions a day in interest.
Australians, including a majority of Victorians, had a say in 2023. The Victorian government chose to treat that answer as irrelevant to its treaty agenda. The documents now reveal the price of that choice.