{"id":33514,"date":"2025-07-03T06:46:19","date_gmt":"2025-07-02T20:46:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/?p=33514"},"modified":"2025-07-03T06:46:19","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T20:46:19","slug":"victorian-greens-welcome-yoorrooks-historic-reports-for-truth-demand-labor-finally-walk-the-talk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/2025\/07\/03\/victorian-greens-welcome-yoorrooks-historic-reports-for-truth-demand-labor-finally-walk-the-talk\/","title":{"rendered":"Victorian Greens Welcome Yoorrook’s Historic Reports for Truth, Demand Labor Finally Walk the Talk"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Greens have welcomed the historic final reports of the Yoorrook Justice Commission and called on the Allan Labor Government to adopt all 100 recommendations, after Labor ignored or rejected around 85% of Yoorrook\u2019s interim recommendations.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today the Government tabled Yoorrook\u2019s third and final report, Yoorrook for Transformation<\/em>, and its public record of colonisation in the state, Yoorrook Truth Be Told<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leader of the Victorian Greens Ellen Sandell thanked all Commissioners for their more than four years\u2019 of work recording vital evidence, as well as witnesses for delivering often devastating testimonies. Yoorrook\u2019s final report covers both areas for immediate reform, such as self-determination and education, as well as transformative proposals for the Treaty process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ms Sandell called on Labor to finally walk the talk and commit to all 100 final recommendations, after the Government fully accepted just 6 of 46 urgent reforms from Yoorrook for Justice<\/em>, a 2023 interim report into child protection and criminal justice systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While some justice reforms may be negotiated through Treaty, Labor outright rejected three: strengthening the Victorian human rights charter; raising the age of criminal responsibility to 14; and creating a presumption of bail for all but the most serious offences. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Allan Labor Government even rushed through knee-jerk bail laws against Yoorrook\u2019s recommendations, leading to record-high imprisonment of First Nations Victorians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

New figures from Corrections Victoria shows the overall prison population increased by 9.7% in the 12 months to May 2025. But this number is almost twice as high for Indigenous Victorians, at 18.8%, and is more than five times as high <\/em>for Indigenous women at 51.6%. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shockingly, almost two-thirds (65%) of Indigenous women in prison are now being held on remand without any finding of guilt, nearly all for minor offences. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yoorrook’s final reports were delivered to the Government and the First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria last week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Greens strongly support legislation which would allow the First Peoples Assembly\u2019s work to continue in an ongoing way \u2013 advocating for solutions put forward by First Nations Victorians themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leader of the Victorian Greens Ellen Sandell:\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAll Victorians will benefit from better understanding Victoria\u2019s true history and its enduring impacts on First Peoples.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt takes bravery for Aboriginal Victorians to come forward and share stories about what their families endured through colonisation \u2013 and I also thank everyone who opened their hearts to hear these stories and think about how we can walk forward together for a better future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Greens stand ready to work with the Victorian Government to deliver the solutions Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities are calling for. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI urge the Premier to finally walk the talk and adopt all the Yoorrook recommendations in full \u2013 instead of ignoring or rejecting them like Labor has done in the past.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Victorian Greens justice spokesperson, Katherine Copsey MLC:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Greens call on Labor to accept all recommendations of the Yoorrook Justice Commission \u2013 including the 85% of previous recommendations that Labor initially put in the too hard basket.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLabor\u2019s knee-jerk bail laws have already put a record high number of unsentenced First Peoples in prison \u2013 particularly Aboriginal women who are languishing in prison without even going to trial yet, often for non-violent crimes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIndigenous Victorians, especially Indigenous women, pay the price for punitive \u2018tough on crime\u2019 changes to bail \u2013 when violent crimes are overwhelmingly committed <\/em>by non-Aboriginal men.\u201d  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Greens have welcomed the historic final reports of the Yoorrook Justice Commission and called on the Allan Labor Government to adopt all 100 recommendations, after Labor ignored or rejected around 85% of Yoorrook\u2019s interim recommendations. Today the Government tabled Yoorrook\u2019s third and final report, Yoorrook for Transformation, and its public record of colonisation in the … Continue reading “Victorian Greens Welcome Yoorrook’s Historic Reports for Truth, Demand Labor Finally Walk the Talk”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33514","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aussie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33514","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33514"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33514\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33515,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33514\/revisions\/33515"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33514"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33514"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33514"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}