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The tight timeframes of the Yoorrook Justice Commission will test Premier Daniel Andrews’ reputation as a reformer, pressuring him to pick up the pace in areas where the government wants to tread cautiously.
Victoria has made a commitment to put change in the hands of First Peoples; however, the schedule laid out by the truth-telling inquiry will chafe against the slow pace that comes naturally to government decision-making.
Premier Daniel Andrews will now consider the Yoorrook Justice Commission’s first report.Credit: Jason South
Aboriginal Victorians will argue many of the significant changes proposed by the truth-telling inquiry have long been discussed, are urgently needed or are already underway.
But the state government will be tempted to kick trickier measures down the road for further consultation, and Yoorrook’s commissioners are alive to this in setting a 12-month deadline.
When Victoria’s Mental Health Royal Commission was taking place, Andrews pledged to implement every recommendation that would come out of it.
He has vowed to support Yoorrook’s independent work, but is yet to make a similar commitment while considering the politically challenging task of reforming the state’s justice system.
Attorney-General Jaclyn Symes gave evidence to the inquiry.Credit: Chris Hopkins
One of the commission’s recommendations, immediately raising the age of criminal responsibility to 14, already conflicts with Victoria’s policy to do so by 2027, a much slower pace.
Another key issue for Aboriginal Victorians, removing the public drunkenness offence, had to be pushed back by a year because the government hadn’t had time to test how its new system would work.
A careful approach in this space is not unreasonable, after the Andrews government’s disastrous bail laws from 2018 created a mess they are still trying to clean up today.
No one wants policy on the run, but advocates will say they have waited long enough and the timing of the report, during a Voice to Parliament referendum and ahead of Victorian Treaty negotiations, puts a political imperative on Andrews to show he can back up the state’s rhetoric.
Some of the report’s most significant reforms, such as independent justice and child protection systems for Victoria’s First Peoples, will be at the centrepiece of Treaty negotiations.
However, Yoorrook’s commissioners were clear in their report that they did not want Treaty to become a tool that could buy the government more time.
“This must not be used as an excuse for delay, given the evidence Yoorrook has presented,” they said.
“Yoorrook also notes that the treaty framework allows the negotiation of interim agreements.”
A smoking ceremony was held before the Yoorrook Justice Commission released its first report.Credit: Jason South
The commission is well aware of drawn-out processes from the state government because they’ve experienced them firsthand.
In March, lawyers for the state were hauled before the inquiry and apologised over failures to provide hundreds of key documents in time.
This delayed the interviews of government ministers and staff and ultimately pushed back the release of multiple Yoorrook reports.
At that time, Yoorrook chair, Professor Eleanor Bourke, said the government’s response was “more business as usual” and showed “a fundamental misunderstanding of the truth-telling process”.
Yoorrook commissioners Professor Kevin Bell, Professor Sue-Anne Hunter, Professor Eleanor Bourke, Travis Lovett and Professor Maggie Walter.
A month later, Andrews made a submission to the commission acknowledging that the over-representation of Aboriginal Victorians in the criminal justice and child protection system was a “source of great shame”.
Yoorrook has now shown the government how it wants to address this shame and has locked it into a tight timeframe for reform.
The political task for Andrews will be whether his government can avoid “business as usual” and walk the walk at a speed that First Peoples can be happy with.
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