Right People for Country Program
Terms and Conditions of Support
Right People for Country program
Right People for Country program (‘RPfC’) provides support to Traditional Owner groups to make agreements about boundaries, extent of Country, group composition and group representation. These agreements can assist Traditional Owner groups who are seeking to become Registered Aboriginal Parties under the Aboriginal Heritage Act 2006 and/or seeking to negotiate settlements with the Victorian Government under the Traditional Owner Settlement Act 2010 and Native Title Act 1993 (Cth).
RPfC can work with Traditional Owner groups to identify what support may assist agreement making. Support needs to be agreed between RPfC and the Traditional Owner group/s. Support must be directly related to preparing for and negotiating an agreement and be proportional to the issues involved.
RPfC can provide information about agreement making including examples of what has worked for other Traditional Owner groups.
Support may be provided directly by RPfC – for example, independent facilitators and training. RPfC may also broker support from key stakeholders – for example, mapping through Aboriginal Victoria (AV). In some cases, RPfC may provide support through a grant to Traditional Owner groups.
RPfC does not provide support where that same support is available elsewhere. RPfC does not fund legal advice and does not pay sitting fees.
Traditional Owner groups
Traditional Owner groups agree to participate in agreement making in good faith and with sustained commitment to work towards agreement.
Agreement making
Agreement making is Traditional Owner led – it is only Traditional Owners who make decisions about the process of agreement making and the content of any agreements reached.
Where appropriate, Traditional Owner groups may appoint authorised representatives to participate in agreement making and to report back to their broader group. Any final agreements need to be endorsed in accordance with each Traditional Owner group’s own decision making process.
If any issue arises that affects the implementation of agreement making, Traditional Owner group/s must notify RPfC. RPfC will work with Traditional Owner group/s to discuss and address any issues. This may involve reviewing the agreement making process or support provided by RPfC.
Evaluation
At the end of agreement making, RPfC will ask Traditional Owner groups to participate in a Project Evaluation to identify what worked and lessons learnt in order to strengthen RPfC support. The Project Evaluation will also include developing a short case-study that tells the story of agreement making for the groups involved as well as other Traditional Owner groups and the broader community.
Facilitators
Where Traditional Owner group/s request independent facilitators, RPfC may recommend a number of facilitators for Traditional Owner group/s to consider and decide who they want to work with.
The role of facilitators is to support Traditional Owner group/s to identify and discuss issues important to the groups in a respectful process. Facilitators must act impartially and must not take sides in agreement making.
Facilitators will be contracted by RPfC (AV, the Department of Premier and Cabinet) to work with Traditional Owner group/s.
Registered Aboriginal Parties, Native Title and Traditional Owner Settlement Processes
RPfC is independent from and separate to the Registered Aboriginal Party (RAP) appointment processes under the Aboriginal Heritage Act 2006, as well as to native title processes, including settlement negotiations under the Traditional Owner Settlement Act 2010 and native title proceedings under the Native Title Act 1993(Cth).
However, the Victorian Aboriginal Heritage Council (VAHC) and the Victorian Government will consider and take into account agreements reached through RPfC that are presented to them by Traditional Owner groups, when making decisions about RAP appointments and native title settlement negotiations respectively.
Information management & confidentiality
Traditional Owners
Agreement making will be conducted confidentially between the Traditional Owner parties involved, unless otherwise agreed. This means information may be shared within and between Traditional Owner parties, but cannot be disclosed to third parties nor used for a purpose other than agreement making, without the consent of all Traditional Owner parties involved.
Right People for Country program
RPfC and AV will ensure that:
▪any information regarding agreement making is securely stored and only used for an appropriate purpose in connection with or reasonably incidental to the administration of RPfC, and
▪RPfC, AV, facilitators and any other contractors to an agreement making process comply with all their legal obligations regarding the collection, use, storage and disclosure of confidential or sensitive information, including obligations imposed by the Information Privacy Act 2000.
▪RPfC will not disclose or make available any information received from or created during meetings with the Traditional Owner group, except with the consent of the Traditional Owner groups involved. These requirements also apply to facilitators and other third parties involved in agreement making.
▪RPfC may publicly name Traditional Owner groups that are receiving or have received agreement making support, but will not publicly disclose any additional information about the agreement making process, unless with the consent of the Traditional Owner groups involved.
Other circumstances
The only other circumstances where information may be disclosed are:
▪when disclosure is required by law, or
▪where the information is already in the public domain, otherwise than as a result of a breach of the confidentiality requirements associated with the agreement making process, or
▪in relation to non-identifying information necessary for administrative, reporting, evaluation or debriefing purposes.
‘Without prejudice’
Agreement making will be conducted on a ‘without prejudice’ basis unless otherwise agreed to by Traditional Owner groups.
This means that any discussion, information, option or statement shared or made in the course of agreement making cannot be disclosed, or relied upon, or be the subject of a subpoena to give evidence or produce documents, in any arbitral, administrative or judicial proceeding.
For example, meetings notes, draft agreement proposals and any other documents produced in the course of agreement making, cannot be used in a Court proceeding or relied on to support a RAP application before the VAHC, unless agreed to by all Traditional Owner parties.
Review and variation
RPfC may initiate a review of agreement making at the request of a Traditional Owner group involved in a project, a facilitator or the RPfC manager. A review is an opportunity to consider: What’s happened? What’s worked? Lessons learnt? Next steps?
Following a review, RPfC may:
▪continue support for agreement making, or
▪with the Traditional Owner group/s, revise the agreement making process and support, or
▪end or suspend RPfC support for agreement making.
Routine mid-term reviews will be undertaken in long term projects. Any variations to the scope of agreement making needs to be approved by the RPfC Steering Committee.
Ending support
A Traditional Owner group which seeks to withdraw from agreement making is encouraged to talk through issues with the RPfC project manager.
RPfC may end support for agreement making if:
▪there is a lack of sustained commitment and/or readiness by Traditional Owner parties to participate in agreement making, or
▪RPfC and Traditional Owner group/s cannot agree on RPfC support and the agreement making process.
Where agreement making comes to an end before the anticipated agreement is reached, RPfC may draft an Agreement Making Report that factually summarises agreement making including who’s been involved, what’s been achieved and a summary of any outstanding issues. The Report will not contain any confidential or sensitive information. The draft Report will be provided to Traditional Owner groups for comment prior to finalisation. The final Report will be provided to Traditional Owner groups and the RPfC Steering Committee as a record of agreement making.
Where agreement making is ended, Traditional Owner groups are able to submit a further Expression of Interest to RPfC for support if there is more agreement making work to do.
More information
Visit our webpage at for further information:
Fact Sheet: Accessing Support
Fact Sheet: Terms and Conditions of Support
Contact the Right People for Country program at Aboriginal Victoria:
Sally Smith, Manager.
E:T: (03) 8392 5385
Rebecca Phillips, Project Facilitator.
E:T: (03) 8392 5386
Right People for Country Fact Sheet – Terms and Conditions of Support