Modern Proguard Gradle Plugin requires Android Plugin?

I have a java project (no android libraries). When I use the proguard plugin on it I get an error. I can trace the error back to here

 void apply(Project project)
{
    if (!project.hasProperty('android'))
    {
        throw new BadPluginException('The ProGuard plugin requires the Android plugin to function properly.\n' +
                                     'Please specify\n    apply plugin: \'com.android.application\'\n    apply plugin: \'proguard\'')
    }
  ...

Is this dependency on the android plugin really necessary?