Victorian justice department workers will be offered white privilege training, as the state forges ahead with plans to broker an historic treaty with Indigenous people.
Department of Justice and Community Safety staff will participate in a mandatory cultural awareness course that includes a white privilege module.
The term white privilege refers to advantages afforded to white people by systemic forms of racial injustice.
Premier Jacinta Allan defended the module, pointing out it was voluntary.
‘It’s a bit rough to call out this one module, one training program, that’s optional for those workers,’ Ms Allan told reporters at state parliament on Tuesday.
‘I don’t think there’s anything wrong with efforts being made to make workplaces safe and respectful for everyone.’
AAP has been told the taxpayer-funded training won’t be rolled out across other state agencies or departments.
How agencies ‘brand’ workplace training was a matter for them, Ms Allan said.
Corrections and Youth Justice Minister Enver Erdogan also backed the training module, but conceded a name change may have been prudent.
‘(It) probably could have been rebranded,’ he said.
‘People have different perspectives on life and different backgrounds and I think that’s important to understand in multicultural society.’
Opposition justice spokesman Brad Battin said it was a failure of good governance for Labor to support race-based training.
‘Victorians don’t pay tax to cover Labor’s woke agenda’ he told AAP.
Negotiations on ‘s first treaty with Aboriginal people were slated to begin between the Victorian government and First Peoples’ Assembly in November.
The opposition withdrew its support for treaty in January following the failed national voice to federal parliament referendum, citing concerns about cultural heritage laws.