Victorian Aboriginal leaders will form a powerful new council that will help to set the Andrews government's agenda on Indigenous affairs, in another step to a historic state-based treaty.

The council will drive Aboriginal policy in Victoria, which community leaders said flipped the usual top-down bureaucratic model where policies that affect Aborigines are largely decided by non-Aborigines.

A new council will give Aboriginal Victorians a bigger say in policy. Credit:Greg Newington

It will influence government decision-making on issues such as education, health care and housing and help to develop a plan to support Aboriginal self-determination.

Esme Bamblett​, chief executive of the Aborigines Advancement League, said the new council would give Victorian Aborigines a bigger say in policies that affect them.