Shannon Deery: Yoo-rrook Justice Commission must result in meaningful change

The Yoo-rrook Justice Commission sounds good on paper, but real, lasting and practical change must come from the inquiry.

Deputy Premier James Merlino Auntie Geraldine Atkinson at Coranderrk at Healesville for the launch of the Victorian Government's Truth and Justice Commission. Picture: Andrew Henshaw/NCA Newswire.

Speak to any victim of child sexual abuse and they’ll almost universally tell you the same thing: they just want to be heard.

For many victims, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse allowed that to happen.

Thousands of people from institutions across the country testified during the course of the long-running commission.

For many, it was the first time they’d been heard.

For many, it was the first time they’d felt respected.

And for many, it was the first time they felt hope that someone cared enough to make a change.

But ask many of those same people now — three years after the commission tabled its final report to parliament — how their lives have changed and most will say it hasn’t.

There’s been a national apology and awareness of the issue has been raised, including through the National Centre of Excellence.

A redress scheme has been hit and miss and is taking years to deliver results for long-suffering survivors.

Just last week one elderly Victorian survivor died weeks after finally receiving her compensation.

She had waited decades for acknowledgment. She used the money to buy a mobile phone before she died.

Some institutions have better governance structures in place, while others have seemingly learnt nothing and returned to old habits.

And survivors are routinely still being fought tooth and nail through the courts as institutions try to limit their payouts.

While there might be a vibe of change, on a personal level for so many, the status quo remains.

Many survivors attributed a life of crime, long-term unemployment or decades of disadvantage to their childhood abuse.

Many of those same survivors are still trapped in the criminal justice system, remain unemployed, and continue to be disadvantaged.

And so this should serve as both a warning, and a challenge, before the state government’s landmark Indigenous truth and justice commission gets to work.

The Yoo-rrook Justice Commission will run like a royal commission, with similar powers.

Five commissioners, the majority Indigenous, will be appointed by mid-2021 and have three years to hear about the experiences of Aboriginal Victorians since colonisation.

The commission will ultimately hand down a report to serve as an official record of the impact of colonisation on Indigenous Victorians, and make recommendations to address systemic injustices.

For many Aboriginal Victorians, it may be the first time they’ve felt heard.

For many, it may be the first time they’ve felt respected.

And for many, it may be the first time they have felt hope that someone cared enough to make a change.

And these would be noble outcomes.

But what is the end game?

Those involved say they don’t know, and it would be foolish to pre-empt the outcome of the inquiry. Of course, that’s true. But without a target, where does it all lead?

The commission will have broad terms of reference, and at this stage seemingly an endless amount of money to run its course.

The government cannot yet say how much it will cost, saying only that the commission will work out its own budgetary needs.

It’s all very much up in the air, which does not bode well for real, tangible and life-changing outcomes.

Indigenous Australians continue to die younger, and be jailed more, than other Australians.

It is predicted that it will be almost the end of the century before the incarceration rate of Aboriginal people is the same as that of other Australians.

Seven Closing the Gap targets were introduced under Kevin Rudd’s leadership in 2008, but just two have been achieved in 12 years.

Already views among Indigenous people are split on the commission.

Marcus Stewart at Coranderrk at Healesville for the launch of the Victorian Government's Truth and Justice Commission. Picture: Andrew Henshaw/NCA NewsWire.

Marcus Stewart, co-chair of the state’s First Peoples’ Assembly who called for a truth and justice commission, said it was the first step on the path to real change.

“We want to get this process right. We want this journey of healing to be effective,” Mr Stewart said.

“And we want to bring our fellow Victorians along with us, to stand with us and work with us.

“So we need to make sure that this process is right.”

Anthony Dillon, an Indigenous commentator, says the truth-telling exercise is not needed for Aboriginal Victorians to achieve peace, health and happiness.

“My views on truth-telling are similar to what they were on prime minister Kevin Rudd’s national apology,” he wrote in these pages last week.

“Namely, an apology is fine, but it is not the elixir that is going to help Aboriginal people today, and clearly it was not.

“It brought some short-term, feel-good emotions, but no real lasting practical benefit.”

The Victorian inquiry is a move by a progressive government that could either lead to real change or spectacularly backfire.

Because if following its work there is no real, lasting and practical change, many will be left wondering, what was the point.

And where to next?

Shannon Deery is Herald Sun state politics editor

@s_deery