Premier Jacinta Allan has delivered another historic apology to Aboriginal Victorians for the “profound and undeniable harm” caused by colonisation.

In a special sitting of parliament on Tuesday, Ms Allan apologised to the state’s Indigenous population for laws, policies and decisions made by the Victorian parliament that resulted in the stealing of land, the removal of children from families and the erasure of culture.

“Today is a day of reckoning,” she said.

“We say sorry for the violence committed under the banner of the state and the colony that came before it, and for the neglect that allowed it to continue with our consequence.

“We say sorry for the wealth built on lands and waters taken without consent while first peoples were locked out of prosperity.

“We say sorry for the silencing of language and the erasure of words.

“We say sorry for the policies that stripped First Peoples of the right to move freely, to marry without permission, to work for fair wages or to live with dignity on their own land.”

Ms Allan said the apology symbolised a “new era” which “embraces truth, honours justice and creates space for a shared future”.

An emotional Sonya Kilkenny, Victoria’s Attorney-General, and Aboriginal Labor MP Sheena Watt wiped tears from their eyes as the Premier spoke.

The apology was one of the agreements under Victoria’s treaty process.

It comes after the Victorian parliament passed Australia-first legislation in October to enshrine Treaty into law, and just over a year on from Ms Allan’s first apology to Aboriginal Victorians.

The Premier made the previous apology, specifically to Victoria’s stolen generation, at a private gathering at the Victorian Aboriginal community Services Association on behalf of the Victorian government in October last year.

She later announced the apology on social media.

“Members of the Stolen Generations have never received an apology in person from the Victorian Government. Until today,” she wrote.

“On behalf of successive Victorian governments and parliaments, I apologised to those children who were forcibly removed from their families.”

Opposition Leader Jess Wilson said the Coalition did not support the government’s apology but remained in support of former Liberal premier Jeff Kennett’s “unprecedented” apology to the stolen generations in 1997 which she read in the chamber.

“Premier Kennett said Aboriginal people occupy a special place in Victoria and members of the Indigenous community have suffered greatly in the past through acts of discrimination,” she said.

“He went on to say this discrimination and its long term effects must be understood and acknowledged if Aboriginal people and other Australians are to achieve genuine recognition within the context of a truly multicultural Victoria.

“These words were effectively unprecedented,” she said.

“Unlike the motion before us at present, the 1997 apology was brought forward by both sides of the parliament.”

Ms Wilson committed to measures other than Treaty, which she has pledged to axe, to close the gap.

The Labor caucus was audibly upset as she made this commitment to leaders of Victoria’s treaty body.

First People’s Assembly co-chairs Ngarra Murray and Rueben Berg sat in the public gallery along with other members of the assembly who could be seen tearing up as Ms Allan delivered her apology.

Ms Murray said that while the apology was significant, she acknowledged it would land differently for different people.

“This acknowledgment reaches deep into our families and our communities,” she said.

“It cannot erase the injustice, but it can begin to ease the burden we have carried for generations and help heal our collective spirit.”

Lord Mayor Nick Reece also watched on in the gallery.

With upper house MPs invited into the chamber for the historic moment, MPs found seats among the aisles and shared seats to mark the historic moment.

Earlier on Tuesday, shadow minister for Aboriginal Affairs Melina Bath accused the government of “playing politics” over the apology.

She said Ms Wilson had approached the Premier to “collaborate on an apology” but was rebuffed.

“What we should have seen is something that we could all agree on negotiated,” Ms Bath said.

“But we see the government, the Premier, is playing politics with this apology and it is deeply disappointing.

“But it will be no shock to anybody that the Liberals and Nationals cannot support this apology as it is written.”

The Greens spoke strongly in support of the “historic” apology, but tied it to criticism of the government’s tough new bail and adult sentencing laws.

“I think it’s important to remember though that this apology today comes at a really difficult time for many First Nations communities,” Greens leader Ellen Sandell said.

“In the last few weeks alone, the Allen Labour government has rammed through laws in the parliament, new youth justice laws that we know will have a disproportionate impact on First Nations children.”

Ms Sandell said she feared the government would be apologising for the effects of those policies in the decades ahead.

She acknowledged that while it would be a “deeply healing” process for many people, but for others the meaning of the apology “will be in the inaction or the action that comes following it”.

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