Truth-telling commission calls for redress, financial compensation for Aboriginal Victorians

Redress for Aboriginal Victorians should be provided through statewide and local treaties for historical injustices, the final report of Victoria’s landmark truth-telling inquiry has found.

Restitution of land, monetary compensation, tax relief or other financial benefits are among the forms of compensation the Allan government should consider as part of the process, the final reports of the Yoorrook Justice Commission recommends.

Yoorrook commissioner Travis Lovett at the end of the Walk for Truth at the steps of Parliament House on June 16.Credit: Justin McManus

The final reports were tabled in state parliament on Tuesday afternoon.

The Age on Tuesday revealed three of five Yoorrook commissioners considered writing a dissenting report until, following crisis meetings and interventions, accommodation was reached to enable publication of the reports without formal dissent.

The publication of the documents is the culmination of four years of work for the commission, which was established in May 2021 as a royal commission into historical and ongoing systemic injustices perpetrated against First Peoples.

The commission also supports the treaty processes currently under way.

The first part of Yoorrook’s body of work released on Tuesday contains the findings of the truth-telling process – a First Peoples’ account of Victorian history – based on public submissions, hearings, community engagements and documentary evidence.

The second, a report titled Yoorrook for Transformation, which runs to five volumes, contains 100 final recommendations to the government. These add to 148 recommendations already published through the commission’s interim reports.

The last two of these recommendations call on the Allan government to officially acknowledge the “responsibility of its predecessors for laws, policies and practices that contributed to systemic injustices against Victorian First Peoples” and to make official apologies.

The final request is that, through a statewide treaty and other localised treaties to be negotiated with traditional owner groups, the state provides redress for injustices as a result of colonial occupation.

This includes “all consequent damage and loss, including economic and non-economic loss for genocide, crimes against humanity and denial of freedoms”.

Yoorrook’s report says redress should include monetary compensation, tax relief and the restitution of ownership rights for traditional lands, waters and natural resources to First Peoples.

In the report, the commissioners noted that their terms of reference required it to consider redress as part of their inquiry.

“The state providing redress to First Peoples is a critical component of truth-telling and of addressing historical and ongoing injustices,” they say.

They note a range of injustices, including theft of land and waters, oppressive policies, incarceration on missions and reserves, the destruction of language and culture and the forced removal of children from their families and communities.

Other recommendations called on the government to negotiate “independent funding streams” with the First Peoples Assembly of Victoria, earmarking state government revenue from land, water and natural resources to support Victoria’s self-determination fund and other initiatives led by Aboriginal Victorians.

To support this, Yoorrook asks the state government to give the assembly and traditional owner groups access to annual data showing the revenue the government collects from freehold land, Crown land, waterways, fisheries, forestry, renewables, minerals, gas and petroleum.

The report found that between 2010 and 2023, the state had received $83 billion in water-related revenue, $1 billion from resource royalties and $1.89 billion from grazing and licences of government land.

Recommendation 96 calls on the state to negotiate a permanent model for the First People’s Assembly, with “powers at all levels of political and policy decision-making”.

In her foreword, Yoorrook chair Professor Eleanor Bourke AM said through the commission’s lifetime they had received at least 16 formal apologies from ministers and state representatives.

But she said these apologies were not enough on their own, with the document outlining changes to be developed through treaty that should begin immediately.

“This report builds on the resistance and foundation laid by generations of First Peoples advocates and elders,” Bourke said.

“Real transformation must come from First Peoples leading the solutions and the decisions that affect our lives. Treaty and self-determination are essential for this.”

Bourke urged Premier Jacinta Allan and the Victorian government to implement their recommendations with “courage and commitment”.

Allan on Tuesday thanked the commission for the reports and said the state government would consider their final findings and recommendations.

“They shine a light on hard truths and lay the foundations for a better future for all Victorians,” she said.

“Victoria’s truth-telling process is a historic opportunity to hear the stories of our past that have been buried – these are stories that all Victorians need to hear.”

Many of the report’s findings request that Aboriginal Victorians be given greater involvement with the use of the state’s natural resources, including partnering on forestry management and reviewing ways that traditional owner groups can provide consent to mining operations.

Water plays a critical role in these considerations, with the government urged to recognise in the treaty process and in law that First Peoples have “fundamental and inherent” cultural rights and sovereignty over the use of water resources.

Alongside this, Yoorrook recommends that traditional owners be exempted from water taxes, rates and charges, recognising them as rights-holders rather than users.

In areas such as health and education, Yoorrook’s recommendations focus on better reporting on the areas where Aboriginal Victorians have poorer outcomes, partnering with them on solutions or giving them greater autonomy over how resources are used.

Through the treaty process, the government has also been asked to transfer control of curriculum and resources for First Peoples’ education back into their own hands.

Universities should also have their own public truth-telling process about their history of engagement with Aboriginal Victorians and the legacy of their actions, says the report.

Aboriginal health services should receive greater funding and strategies introduced to reduce the use of restrictive interventions and compulsory assessment and treatment in mental health services, the report says.

Commissioners also called for the state to increase the proportion of public housing allocated for Indigenous Victorians as part of its signature housing policy, the Big Housing Build, from 10 per cent to 25 per cent of the total over the next five years.

During public hearings, the commission received documents that estimated Melbourne’s Catholic Church buildings were worth more than $3 billion, not including the value of the land, and heard that many church properties built during the colonial area were built on land provided free by the government.

Yoorrook’s report found churches should identify opportunities where land could be returned to First Peoples or proceeds of sales shared. Redress should also be provided to those affected by soldier settlement schemes, in which land was provided to soldiers returning from World War I.

The report calls for Indigenous names to be reinstated for places across Victoria, prioritising public spaces, significant natural features and road names. Resources should also be provided to establish signs and markers at historic sites of massacres, missions and frontier wars.

In September 2023, Yoorrook published a report with 46 recommendations related to the child protection and youth justice system, including calls for overhauls that would give First Nations people greater control.

The Allan government’s response seven months later supported four of these in full, 24 in principle and listed 15 as under consideration. The state rejected three recommendations on raising the age of criminal responsibility, bail reform and pursuing human rights abuses through the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal.

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