The Yoorook Report Into Victoria’s Child Protection and Criminal Justice Systems released today highlights the sad fact that Victoria is the worst performing state when it comes to closing the gap in Aboriginal affairs.
It articulates some atrocities from long ago, but more concerningly it demonstrates that across the past 25 years, the system has failed children in Victoria.
The report also underlines the system has failed adults in the criminal justice system in Victoria.
All this has happened under the watch of successive Labor Governments.
Leader of The Nationals and Shadow Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Peter Walsh, said: “To close the gap, it has to be a holistic approach.”
“It has to be about how you improve educational outcomes for Aboriginal children and has to be about how you improve housing options for Aboriginal families.
“And most importantly, it’s about how you improve work-related career opportunities for Aboriginal people so they can actually have the opportunity that everyone else has.”
Mr Walsh questioned the need for a standalone justice system for Aboriginal Victorians.
“I don’t think setting up a totally separate Aboriginal system in Victoria is necessarily the way forward. We are all Victorians. We are all Australians. We need to work together to solve this,” Mr Walsh said.
Mr Walsh said the Liberals and Nationals would take time to absorb the detailed report.
“There’s a lot of detail in there and it cuts across a number of portfolios. We need to do a lot of work as a Shadow Ministerial team,” Mr Walsh said.
