Wednesday, 18 June 2025

 Chris COUZENS (Geelong) (09:59): I want to acknowledge and thank Yoorrook commissioner Travis Lovett for initiating the Walk for Truth. Thousands of people have joined the walk from Portland to Parliament. The walk will end here today with a ceremony in Queen’s Hall. It is a celebration of strength and resilience of First Peoples, the oldest living culture in the world. I am proud that in Victoria we are the first in the country to have the Yoorrook truth-telling process. Yoorrook is giving us a great gift of knowledge and asks us to walk with them to share this. We are all part of this history. It is a significant time for all Victorians. We will remember this as a time of real progress – of learning the truth of the impacts of colonisation told by First Peoples. The Yoorrook truth-telling will stand as a record for the past wrongs – the massacres, the stolen generation, the stolen lands and language and so much more. It is a very uncomfortable truth but necessary for us all to move forward. First Peoples culture holds living wisdom that will benefit all of us. First Peoples have thousands of years of deep knowledge of the lands, waters and skies. They have told stories that have been passed down through generations, and they have a deep cultural understanding of this land where we all live. Truth-telling and treaty is how we close the gap. Victoria’s latest Closing the Gap data shows we have mixed results. Our progress on some targets has gotten worse, and why is that? Because for over 200 ‍years governments and our systems have been making decisions for First Peoples.