Thursday, 10 September 2026

 Trung LUU (Western Metropolitan) (21:55): (2805) My matter is for the Minister for Corrections regarding the continued operation of Rivergum Residential Treatment Centre and the serious concerns raised about its effectiveness, costs and outcomes. The action I seek is for the minister to immediately review the facility, release a transparent assessment of its performance and outline why it should continue operating in its current form.

The Rivergum facility was established to house and rehabilitate some of Victoria’s most serious post-sentence offenders and now has been exposed as a deeply flawed model. Records show that since its opening in 2018 no more than 20 inmates have ever been housed at the centre, and there are reportedly just two residents currently, despite its costing taxpayers up to $10 million per year to operate. This is a very expensive exercise – costing taxpayers $10 million per year to look after two inmates – when the debt of Victorians is $168 billion and forecast to reach $200 billion by 2029–30. This raises serious questions about value for money and whether this model is delivering any meaningful outcome for community safety.

More concerning are the revelations of former Post Sentence Authority chair Michele Williams KC, who has stated she raised repeated warnings with the government as early as 2023 that the model was fundamentally flawed. She identified as the core issue the decision to house violent offenders and sex offenders together, a structure that undermines the facility’s entire rehabilitation approach. Offenders reportedly refuse to engage with one another, rendering group-based therapy ineffective. Their rehabilitation is not taking place. The entire premise of the facility collapses. There are known, deeply troubling reports that offenders have effectively been ticked off for having completed the rehabilitation program without genuinely engaging in treatment. This calls into question the integrity of the system and whether decisions affecting community safety are being made on unreliable, incomplete information. At the same time inmates have reported conditions of isolation they say undermine the rehab and may expose the state to legal risk.

The facility is designed to improve outcomes but is still failing both offenders and the community. This situation represents a clear failure of oversight and accountability. Warnings were raised. Concerns were ignored. Taxpayers continue to fund a facility that is not achieving any purpose. So I ask the minister: will the government immediately release a full review of the Rivergum centre? And what steps are being taken to ensure that the programs are evidence based and effective and deliver real safety outcomes for Victorians?