Wednesday, 9 March 2022

Aboriginal youth justice

Ms WATT (Northern Metropolitan) (17:52): (1799) My adjournment matter is directed to the Minister for Youth Justice in the other place, the Honourable Natalie Hutchins. My electorate is made up of many strong and proud Aboriginal communities and Aboriginal community controlled organisations (ACCOs) who work every day to counter the negative impacts faced by Aboriginal children, young people and their families because of systemic racism and sustained disadvantage. We know that both the truth-telling and treaty processes are well underway, with the Yoorrook Justice Commission developing its record on systemic injustices and the First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria creating the foundation for treaty making in our state. But the unacceptable overrepresentation of Aboriginal children and young people persists in the youth justice system. We must act with urgency and diligence to provide children and young people with the support and opportunities they deserve away from incarceration.

I am really proud to be part of a Labor government that is committed to embedding self-determination to solve these systemic issues alongside Aboriginal communities. This commitment has led to Victoria’s first Aboriginal youth justice strategy, called Wirkara Kulpa, which provides a culturally strong and youth-focused response to see us close the gap in the representation of Aboriginal children and young people in the justice system by 2031. The directions and actions within Wirkara Kulpa have been directly informed by the Koori Youth Justice Taskforce, which examines the care of nearly 300 Aboriginal children and young people under youth justice supervision, and the commissioner for children and young people’s Our Youth, Our Way inquiry report.

The experiences of Aboriginal children and their family and community members have been heard loud and clear by the Andrews Labor government. Their voices are leading the holistic reform to youth justice, as outlined in this strategy. I really do thank the ACCOs in my electorate for their incredible work and their exceptional leadership and of course the exceptional leadership of the Aboriginal Justice Caucus. Targets to remove the 10-times overrepresentation of Aboriginal children and young people are indeed achievable with this plan and strategy created for and by Aboriginal people.

The action that I seek is for the minister to update me on the progress of reforms to Aboriginal youth justice and the implementation of Wirkara Kulpa and the Our Youth, Our Way inquiry report, with a particular focus on the Northern Metropolitan Region and the Aboriginal community-controlled organisations delivering in the Northern Metropolitan Region.