Tuesday, 28 May 2024

Police conduct

Georgie PURCELL (Northern Victoria) (20:49): (909) My adjournment matter this evening is for the Attorney-General, and the action I seek is for the release of the final report on the systemic review of police oversight or, if that is not yet available, any draft versions of its findings and recommendations. In response to recommendation 61 of the Royal Commission into the Management of Police Informants, the Department of Justice and Community Safety in 2021 was tasked with undertaking the systemic review of police oversight. This followed the disclosure that the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission currently investigates only around 2 per cent of police misconduct complaints, allowing officers abusing their powers to go unchecked and without consequence. IBAC’s review highlighted evidence of cover-ups by police officers, failures to address investigating officers’ conflicts of interest and failures to contact key witnesses. The Attorney-General claimed in the 2022 annual progress report that this work was completed and that the government was considering options for reform, yet these options have still not seen the light of day and have been deliberately concealed from the public. The government said in 2021 it was committed to learning from the IBAC committee and ensuring the highest oversight system for the Victorian police force. Consultations for this review closed in February 2022. During that year 28 women were murdered in this state due to family violence. The government then told us two years later this April – only after 35 women had been murdered – they would act on the epidemic of violence against women in this country.

We know that the police system is a substantial part of the problem. The process of complaints of violence or threats of violence begins, and all too often ends, at police stations. We also know that contact with the justice system is detrimental to our youth and their futures. Instead of raising the age of criminal responsibility to 14 and addressing the systemic racism and over-policing of First Nations children, the government wants to provide police with new, expansive powers in the youth justice reforms without releasing the findings of police oversight and misconduct in this state. The Yoorrook Justice Commission recommended in September 2023 that the government establish a new, independent police oversight authority, and if this government wants to change male violence against women and youth crime then it needs to hold Victorian police to account, and I seek for the Attorney-General to release the final report of the systemic review of police oversight.