The key demands being made in Yoorrook Justice Commission’s final report

The Yoorrook Justice Commission’s final report has been unveiled, demanding compensation for Indigenous Victorians for historical wrongs. These are the key recommendations.

Premier Jacinta Allan gives evidence before the Yoorrook Justice Commission. Picture: David Crosling

The explosive final report by the Yoorrook Justice Commission has been unveiled, demanding compensation for Indigenous Victorians for historical wrongs.

The report, which follows a four-year inquiry, carries 100 recommendations spanning land rights, redress schemes, education, and health policies.

Its most controversial calls included a string of financial benefits to make amends “for injustice which has occurred during and as a result of the colonial invasion and occupation of First Peoples’ territories.”

However, the findings are so contentious and potentially costly that three out of the five Commissioners did not want to endorse the full list.

The state government now faces a 24-month deadline to consider these recommendations, though it has already begun implementing some, like expanding and permanently establishing the First Peoples’ Assembly.

So, what are the most striking recommendations? Here are the major demands.

Apologies and redress schemes

• The Victorian government should formally recognise past injustices against Indigenous Victorians and work with the First Peoples’ Assembly to agree on the wording for apologies.

• Offer compensation for past colonial wrongs by returning land, providing monetary compensation, tax relief, and other benefits, while recognising First Peoples’ rights to share in natural resource revenue.

• Establish a body of First Peoples representatives with the authority to make significant decisions in politics and policies, ensuring their voices are heard.

• Work with First Peoples to create a special fund to help them invest in projects and markets for growth and success.

• The state should recognise and respect the diverse Indigenous groups in Victoria, acknowledging their legal and political systems, and engage with them as sovereign entities.

• Grant decision-making power to Indigenous Victorians in areas like health, education, and land rights, allowing them to design, oversee, and manage these sectors.

• Collaborate with the First Peoples’ Assembly to create separate funding sources, potentially using revenue from land, water, and natural resources for initiatives.

• Commit to ongoing funding at both state and local levels to support initiatives that heal and strengthen connections between Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities.

• Include First Peoples’ Assembly representatives in all state ceremonial events

Workplace

• Amend the law to make workplaces culturally safe, establish a complaint handling process, and review pay and leave policies for First Nations employees.

• Include criteria in senior executives’ job contracts and evaluations on their effectiveness in hiring, retaining, and promoting First Peoples staff.

• Implement quotas for First Peoples representation on company boards and government boards.

The report recommends the Victorian Government should work with the First Peoples’ Assembly to agree on the wording for apologies. Picture: Martin Ollman

Land Rights

• Provide comprehensive data on government revenues from freehold land, waterways, minerals, and resources.

• Establish markers and memorials at significant sites to honour First Peoples’ histories, including past injustices, massacres, missions, frontier wars, and leadership, as determined by traditional owners or Aboriginal groups.

• Restore Indigenous place names in Victoria, prioritising key public areas, parks, waterways, and roads, ensuring they are reflected on maps and documents, with names chosen by traditional owners and co-ordinated by the First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria.

• Encourage churches in Victoria to return land acquired cheaply or reserved for them to traditional owners and share proceeds from future sales of such land.

• Advocate for changes to native title laws, requiring the state to disprove traditional owners’ connection to Country, rather than the current requirement for traditional owners to prove their connection.

• Provide ongoing funding to empower Traditional Owner groups in their cultural heritage work.

• Collaborate with the Commonwealth to negotiate the return of cultural, secret, and sacred objects from interstate, overseas, and private collections.

• Support and fund the establishment of an independent First Peoples Cultural Fire Authority, led by First Peoples, to grant traditional owners rights to conduct cultural fire practices.

Water and Resources

• Recognise waterways as living entities and appoint traditional owners as guardians, granting them oversight of management and commercial uses, including coal and desalination.

• Exempt traditional owners from paying taxes, rates, and charges related to water.

• Grant traditional owners rights over waterways and negotiate a revenue-sharing agreement.

• Collaborate with Traditional Owner groups for future forestry management.

• Obtain consent from Indigenous Victorian groups for mineral, resource, extractive projects, climate change responses, and renewable energy projects.

The report calls for Indigenous children to be excluded from classroom suspensions, attendance records and modified timetables.

Education

• Commit additional funding to First Peoples-led early education services.

• The Department of Education should develop a separate policy for excluding First Peoples students, covering attendance, classroom exclusions, suspensions, modified timetables.

• Establish school zones to ensure access to culturally appropriate education.

• First Peoples should lead the curriculum review for Indigenous content, ensuring all subjects include their perspectives, and assess teachers’ ability to deliver this content, evaluating current standards.

• Invest in high-quality teaching materials authored or endorsed by First Peoples.

• Increase the number of First Peoples educators.

• Victorian universities should actively acknowledge and address their historical interactions with First Peoples.

• With guidance from First Peoples, Victorian universities should recognise and compensate First Peoples staff for the additional ‘colonial load’ they bear.

• Develop a qualification, such as a Graduate Diploma of First Peoples Curriculum Teaching.

Provide more funding to First Peoples-led education services for young children.

• Acknowledge Indigenous people in all education areas and create culturally sensitive learning environments.

Health

• Remove Protective Service Officer powers for mental health crises and update police and health policies for Indigenous patients.

• Ensure independent investigation of First Peoples’ complaints against police under the Mental Health and Wellbeing Act 2022.

• Create a Victorian First Peoples body to prevent family violence and expand funding for related initiatives.

• Fund a separate Indigenous housing network and increase housing supply, including quotas in Big Build projects.

• Take legal steps to eliminate racism against First Peoples in health settings.

• Share all data on Closing the Gap initiatives and publish annual results.

• Transfer the oversight and responsibility for First Peoples’ prison healthcare from the Department of Justice and Community Safety to the Department of Health.