Australian justice commission tabled interim report

The Yoorrook Justice CommissionYoorrook Justice Commission has tabled its first interim report in Victorian Parliament, which details Aboriginal elders' experiences of systemic abuse, including discrimination, dispossession from land, legal injustice and child removal.

The interim report was written by the truth-telling commission, speaking to about 200 elders across Victoria, and using the stories to determine areas that need attention the most.

Yoorrook was established in May 2021 and has the same powers as a royal commission, meaning it can compel government bodies to give evidence and hand over records.

Yoorrook means truth in the Wemba Wemba Wamba language, which is spoken in the north-west of Victoria.

The interim report makes only two recommendations: to have the final report delayed by two years until 2026, and that the government make changes to how information provided to the commission is stored and accessed.

The Commission chair Eleanor Bourke said the report detailed the pain experienced by elders, who deserve to see change in their lifetimes. Each of the 200 elders we spoke to pointed out the ongoing effects of discriminatory policies and racist beliefs that have not only affected them, but they continue to affect their children and grandchildren, the Wamba Wamba Wergaia elder said.

The Yoorrook Justice CommissionYoorrook Justice Commission must include new ways of bringing about change in a contemporary environment, primarily through treaty, because this is a very different forum for truth-telling. The commission will make a record of Victoria's history of colonisation and historical and contemporary injustices against First Nations people.

Aunty Fay Carter was one of the elders who spoke to the commission. She said that all Aboriginal people in Echuca were treated on the hospital verandah until at least the 1970s. I was born on the verandah of the Echuca hospital because in those days they didn't take the Aboriginal mothers into the wards with the non-Aboriginal mothers.

Uncle Jack Charles described the impact of being a member of the Stolen Generations.

I was taken from my mum and placed in a series of homes to be raised as a white person, he told commissioners.

It took a lot of time and many resources to find out my identity as a member of the Stolen Generations. If I had not had such a high profile, I would never have received this information. Lack of accountability over deaths in custody.

Elders spoke of systemic racism in the criminal justice system, with Aunty Cheryl Austin saying no-one in Australia had been charged over an Aboriginal death in custody.

She told commissioners that no-one has been held accountable for Aboriginal deaths in custody.

How many deaths are there? No one has been held accountable. Uncle Johnny Lovett told commissioners that the process of land dispossession in the state was violent.

He said that in Victoria, the government truly wanted to wipe out the Aboriginal people to the point where there would be no knowledge of them.

The report proposes that the next phase of Yoorrook's work should focus on the state-sanctioned removal of Indigenous children from their families, and injustices First Nations people experience in the criminal justice system.

The report states that state entities continue to remove First Peoples' children from their families in record numbers and First Peoples are still dying in state custody.

The commission has asked the Governor to extend the due date for Yoorrook's final report by two years to June 30, 2026, due to delays due to COVID 19 and the extra time required to operate in a culturally safe and trauma-informed way.

A second report will make recommendations on negotiating treaty with the state.