Rachel Stephen-Smith apologises for First Nations treaty consultation 'hurt', says govt won't rush process

Rachel Stephen-Smith thanked the Ngunnawal people who participated in the process, but sought to reassure First Nations people the government was not rushing to develop a treaty.

"I want to assure all ACT traditional owner families and the wider Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community that the government has made no decisions or commitments to any individual or family group about what treaty will look like or how we will get there," Ms Stephen-Smith said in a statement on Thursday.

"We understand that everyone who potentially has a stake in treaty must be engaged in the process and that this process will take time. We do not have a fixed timeline and we know that processes in other jurisdictions have taken many years.

"I have also heard from some individuals and families that they do not believe Treaty is the right path forward for the ACT. These voices must have the opportunity to be heard."

Ms Stephen-Smith said the government was considering how it could facilitate a "productive and healing conversation" with traditional owners and the wider Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community through its $20 million healing and reconciliation fund.

"We recognise that whatever comes next will require sustained effort, resourcing and expertise," she said.

The report, prepared by Professor Kerry Arabena's Karabena Consulting, was published on Thursday, and outlined a 10-step process "without precedence" to achieve a treaty, which the report said had been endorsed by Ngunnawal people.

That process identified by the report would include the Legislative Assembly passing a Treaty Act and the United Ngunnawal Elders Council agreeing on a mechanism for negotations. A final treaty would also include a reparations package.

Reparations could include one-off payments to Ngunnawal elders to ensure they had inter-generational wealth to pass on to their families and the establishment of a Ngunnawal Future Fund.

A "pay the rent" levy on all ACT properties could be used to build up the value of the fund.

"Its purpose will be to resource Ngunnawal future goals and care for Country initiatives, and promote opportunities to close all wealth, health, parenting, cultural and wellbeing gaps. It is proposed that a build-up of funds occur over the next," the report said.

The report recommended transforming the ACT's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elected Body into a treaty commission, which could "could also engage in strategies to achieve a treaty that would benefit all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people living in the ACT".

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A native title claim on the ACT and surrounds - which was announced on June 3, 30 years after the High Court's landmark Mabo decision - would likely expand the land held by Ngunnawal people, the report said.

This could be achieved by adjusting land values to favour Ngunnawal people and their families and creating land development opportunities, such as crop planting or solar farms, that would "further support Ngunnawal housing, health and other projects, and to generate individual, family and collective wealth".

The report, however, noted the limitations of the consultation process.

"Although Ngunnawal families represented on [the United Ngunnawal Elders Council] and who attended workshops were involved in the preliminary consultations which generated this report, there has been considerable and vocal opposition from those not engaged in the process about the validity of this work," the report said.

"However, UNEC members have been staunch advocates for an ACT government and Ngunnawal treaty for more than a decade and have sought to articulate a way forward that benefits Ngunnawal families both living in the ACT and in other parts of Australia."

Not all Ngunnawal families are represented by the United Ngunnawal Elders Council, to which the government provides secretarial support. The council was formed in March 2003.

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