Victorian Government Formally Apologises to Aboriginals

The move was backed by the Greens, and was met halfway by the state’s new Liberal leader.

A man waving the Aboriginal flag at a NAIDOC march in Melbourne, Australia on July 6, 2018. Darrian Traynor/Getty Images

Victoria’s Labor government has issued an official apology to the state’s Aboriginal people in Parliament on Dec. 9.

The apology was recommended by the Yoorrook Justice Commission, which was set up in 2021 as a “truth-telling” body aimed at investigating historical issues related to colonisation.

Premier Jacinta Allan said, in moving the motion that contained the apology, that this was a chance for “all Victorians to move on together.”

“Today’s apology is about unity and healing, and it lays the foundation for practical changes through Treaty to improve outcomes and close the gap,” she said in a statement.

The premier’s statement listed perceived offences against Indigenous Australians, including massacres, cultural destruction, forced child removals, and economic exclusion.

The motion said, “That this house endorses the apology to First Peoples tabled today, acknowledges the past laws, policies, and practices that have contributed to systemic injustice for First Peoples and affirms that under treaty, Victorians will move together toward a new and better future.”

First Peoples Minister Natalie Hutchins said the apology was “an important first step.”

Meanwhile, Victorian Greens Leader Ellen Sandell backed the apology claiming there had been attempts to “wipe out Aboriginal people.”

“Looking back now on Victoria’s true history—back to the actions of people in the 1800s, the 1900s, I believe most of us in this place would be horrified and say, ‘People should have known better.' Right now, we cannot deny it, we do know better,” she told state parliament.

“I fear that in 10 or 20 years time a new parliament, filled with new people, will have to stand in this exact place and apologise again, for policies enacted this year, that governments knew would destroy more First Nations peoples lives.”

Opposition’s Response

New Victorian Opposition Leader Jess Wilson met the apology halfway—issuing a “sorry” to Indigenous Victorians, but refusing to back Labor’s motion due treaty.

“To all Aboriginal Victorians listening today, I say this plainly—I see the injustice in our history, I see the disadvantage that still exists today, and I am determined that we must do better,” she said.

“We accept that this parliament and government’s past have authored laws and policies that have hurt and caused injustice and disadvantage to Aboriginal Victorians, and for that, we say sorry.”

Other Responses

The First People’s Assembly of Victoria called it an “important” moment.

“It is because of the collective strength and activism of our community that we have been able to achieve truth and treaty,” the organisation said.

The Victorian Council of Civil Liberties was critical, however, took aim at the state’s new Adult Crime, Adult Time laws that toughen sentences against youth offenders.

“A Victorian government apology to First Peoples ‘for the childhoods taken and never returned,’ the hypocrisy is real given the same government just passed human rights breaching legislation that will see First Nations children disproportionately harmed through longer prison sentences,” they said on X.