Yoo-rrook Justice Commission to probe historic and ongoing injustices committed against Indigenous Australians

Taxpayers could foot the bill for compensation paid to Indigenous Australians as part of an inquiry into historic and ongoing injustices committed against Indigenous Australians.

Deputy Premier James Merlino with Marcus Stewart (left) and Auntie Geraldine Atkinson (right) at Coranderrk at Healesville for the launch of the Victorian Government's Truth and Justice Commission. Picture: Andrew Henshaw/NCA NewsWire.

Aboriginal Victorians could be paid financial compensation from taxpayers for past injustices, as part of a “truth-telling” inquiry.

The Andrews Government announced the Yoo-rrook Justice Commission on Tuesday, but could not say who would lead the inquiry, its budget or how much a compensation scheme stood to cost the state.

With the powers of a royal commission, the inquiry — headed by five commissioners — will probe the historical and ongoing injustices committed against Aboriginal Victorians.

It will hear testimonies and other evidence about indigenous experiences since colonisation, and probe the impact of laws, policies and practices.

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

While the inquiry is set to run for three years — with an interim report due by mid-2022 — similar truth and justice commissions overseas have taken years longer to complete. Some also ended with reparation payments to Indigenous peoples.

In South Africa, more than $47 million was paid out to 19,000 people identified by the commission as victims of human rights violations.

Announcing the commission — named after the Wemba Wemba word for “truth”— Acting Premier James Merlino said it was too early to pre-empt its outcomes, or to estimate a cost of running the inquiry.

“This is long overdue. It’s an acknowledgment that the pain in our past is present in the lives of people right now,” he said. “It’s a recognition that without truth, without justice you can’t have a treaty.

“The Commission is formed, they’ll get to work mid-year, there’ll be a process that they’ll undertake and that will be what will determine the cost of the commission itself.”

Deputy Premier James Merlino and Auntie Geraldine Atkinson. 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 would cost more to do nothing.

“What’s it going to cost our people to continually do nothing, to continually silence and to continually say that their stories don’t matter?,” he said.

Mr Stewart said it was vital a time limit wasn’t put on the process to ensure anyone who wanted to participate could.

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

“And we want to bring our fellow Victorian along with us, to stand with us and work with us. So we need to make sure that this process is right.”

But writing in today’s Herald Sun, Indigenous commentator Anthony Dillon opposed the view that “national truth-telling” was needed for “Aboriginal people to achieve peace, health, and happiness”.

“My views on truth-telling are similar to what they were on Prime Minster Kevin Rudd’s national apology,” he said.

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

Victorian Senator Lidia Thorpe, who called for a truth commission while a Greens MP for Northcote in 2018, said the inquiry was a “historic opportunity to bring people together to open up the possibility of a genuine Treaty process”.

“We can’t move forward as a country until we reckon with the truth about our history,” she said.

Originally published as Yoo-rrook Justice Commission to probe historic and ongoing injustices committed against Indigenous Australians