Australia's first Treaty bill is expected to be debated in Victoria's lower house this week, as the First Peoples' Assembly of Victoria prepares communities through a series of Aboriginal-led roundtables.

It comes as the Assembly warns of an expected rise in racist and vitriolic commentary as the bill progresses through Parliament.

Introduced last month, the bill was described as a proud and historic step forward for First Peoples. It formally recognises the Assembly — under its new name Gellung Warl, meaning "tip of the spear" or "pointed spear" in Gunaikurnai — as the permanent representative and deliberative body for Traditional Owners and First Peoples in Victoria.

The Treaty bill — opposed by the state opposition but expected to pass with crossbench support — also includes provisions for a formal apology to First Peoples, greater use of traditional place names for parks and waterways, and embedding Indigenous "truth-telling" in the school curriculum.

First Peoples' Assembly Co-Chair Rueben Berg said self-determination is at the heart of Treaty, noting that First Peoples know what works best for their own communities.

"Just as local residents know whether fixing a certain road or upgrading a footy oval is a higher priority for their neighbourhood, Aboriginal people are the experts on our communities. We know what works for us and what doesn't," the Gunditjmara man said.

"But right now non-Aboriginal people are making a lot of decisions about our lives and not always getting it right, no matter how well-intentioned they are."

Preparing for Day One of Treaty

Ahead of the bill's passage, the Assembly has announced a series of roundtables bringing together community leaders, researchers, and frontline service providers. These include a statewide forum of Aboriginal Community-Controlled Organisations (ACCOs), a gathering of Traditional Owners, and a special session uniting representatives from the Aboriginal Governance Forums.

In a statement, the Assembly said the roundtables will focus on "practical solutions for how Treaty can improve health, education, housing and employment outcomes for First Peoples".

"These are areas where generations of governments have failed First Peoples."

Mr Berg said the goal was to ensure "Aboriginal people can use our local knowledge to come up with and deliver practical solutions for our communities that actually work".

"It's about making the most of our expertise to get better outcomes and a better bang for the buck," he added.

It is a point regularly cited by the government in its advocacy of the Treaty process. When introducing the bill, Premier Jacinta Allan said successive governments had spent "huge amounts of money" on First Nations programs without closing the gap.

"We're doing this because it gets better outcomes. We know we need to make change. We know the current practices and systems that have been in place for a very long time just simply aren't working," she said. "There needs to be change, and that's what this treaty agreement and this bill will deliver."

Rising Racism and Disinformation

During the Voice referendum, Indigenous Australians experienced a sharp increase in racist abuse and online misinformation. That pattern, the Assembly says, is already emerging again as debate over Treaty intensifies.

Assembly Co-Chair Ngarra Murray said they had observed a "significant uptick by foreign bots and trolls on issues surrounding Treaty and First Peoples' issues over the last few months", and expected it to "ramp up further during the debate".

"While this Bill is being debated in Parliament we expect to hear a lot of misinformation from a noisy minority, but through our conversations over the last ten years, we know the sensible majority of Victorians want practical, cost-effective solutions that close gaps between First Peoples and non-Aboriginal people and gets better outcomes for our kids and Elders," said the Wamba Wamba, Yorta Yorta, Dja Dja Wurrung and Dhudhuroa woman.

"Their goal is to inflame culture wars with their age-old tactic of using Aboriginal people as political footballs. Our goal is the opposite: we want to make practical change that improves education for our children and strengthens the health, well-being and prosperity of our communities."

Opposition Pushback

The state opposition — which withdrew its previous bipartisan support for Treaty last year without consulting the Assembly — has continued to argue that Treaty will fail to close the gap.

"The Liberals and Nationals are absolutely committed to closing the gap," the opposition's spokeswoman for Aboriginal Affairs, Nationals MP Melina Bath, said last month. "We believe there are alternative approaches that avoid division and race-based distinctions and will deliver real and positive outcomes for Aboriginal Victorians."

Last week, The Australian published an opinion piece by barrister Lana Collaris — a Liberal preselection candidate for Malvern, who previously argued acknowledgments of Country support "a two-tiered system based on race"— in which she falsely claimed the power granted to Gellung Warl under the proposed legislation could "lead to different laws being applied to different Victorians depending entirely on their race".

On Sunday, Shadow Minister for Energy and Resources and Financial Integrity, David Davis, hosted an event — understood not to be officially sanctioned by the Liberal Party — which claimed without evidence that Treaty would grant Indigenous people powers undermining democratic accountability.

A promotional poster for the event read: "Labor's Treaty will cost Victorian taxpayers billions: yet no evidence has been produced to show it will deliver real, measurable improvements for Aboriginal Victorians. How will the Labor Treaty improve Closing the Gap outcomes?"