Submissions Library

This submission was prepared by Dr Nicole Milburn, Mr Julian Pocock, Mr Matthew Wilson, Ms Fleur Ward, and Associate Professor Campbell Paul on behalf of the Tweddle Foundation. The Tweddle Foundation supports the work of Tweddle’s Nursing, Mental Health and Early Parenting Clinicians.

This submission outlines how “the implementation of a Specialist Infant Court in all Children’s Courts throughout Victoria would reduce the rate of permanent removal of First Nations children from their families and moreover, would support more First Nations babies and toddlers being reunited earlier with their families and into their strong and proud culture, where they belong.”

The Victorian Aboriginal Children and Young People’s Alliance (VACYPA) represents fifteen Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations that provide family, child and youth services in Victoria.

This is the second submission made by VACYPA to the Yoorrook Justice Commission. VACYPA made a submission in December 2022, raising five issues that require urgent attention:

• Self-determination
• Law reform and compliance with law and policy
• Early help
• Workforce
• Post-care supports.

Since then, the Alliance has prepared a comprehensive plan for system reform. This additional submission lays out that reform and the underlying rationale.

Dr Tamar Hopkins has been working in the area of police accountability and racism since 2005. She was the founding lawyer of the Police Accountability Project at Flemington & Kensington Community Legal Centre in Melbourne Australia in 2009.

This submission is Dr Hopkins’ PhD Doctorate Thesis submitted in 2022, entitled “Understanding Racial Profiling in Australia.” Drawing on the conceptualisation developed by Epp, Maynard-Moody and Haider-Markel that racial profiling is the disproportionate use of unjustified police power against racial and ethnic minorities, this thesis asks: does racial profiling exist in Australia? Dr Hopkins then develop three methodologies to answer this question.

The submission is published by UNSW and available at http://hdl.handle.net/1959.4/100713.

Dr Tamar Hopkins has been working in the area of police accountability and racism since 2005. She was the founding lawyer of the Police Accountability Project at Flemington & Kensington Community Legal Centre in Melbourne Australia in 2009.

This submission is a report by the Police Stop Data Working Group. Dr Hopkins was the primary researcher and author of the report, which examines eight key practical issues involved in the implementation of a racial profiling data collection scheme in Victoria, Australia and makes 20 recommendations.

The Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission (IBAC) is responsible for preventing and exposing public sector corruption and police misconduct.

This submission provides contextual information about IBAC’s role and purpose and Victoria’s police oversight framework; some of the key resources that guide IBAC’s decision-making and processes in providing oversight of the public sector, including Victoria Police; and explains IBAC’s integrity and oversight functions, including its role, functions and powers relating to police oversight. In setting out Victoria’s police oversight framework, this submission also explains some of the key differences and similarities between IBAC and the Police Ombudsman of Northern Ireland. This submission contains information about the steps already taken, and to be taken, on IBAC’s actions to improve and change IBAC’s response to complaints from Aboriginal Victorians about public sector corruption and police misconduct.

This submission offers a Whole of Government response to the Yoorrook Justice Commission’s two Issues Papers on systemic injustice experienced by First Peoples in the Victorian criminal justice and child protection systems.

The Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission is an independent statutory authority with functions under the Equal Opportunity Act 2010 (Vic). The role of the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission is to protect human rights, to promote fair treatment for all Victorians, and advocate for a diverse and inclusive state.

This submission provides an overview of the current situation in Victoria with respect to protections against race discrimination by public authorities, under the Equal Opportunities Act. The submission then provides a summary of existing protections against race discrimination by public authorities across other Australian jurisdictions. The submission concludes that should Victoria seek to strengthen protections against race discrimination by public authorities under the Equal Opportunities Act, there are appropriate models for reform we may look to within Australia.

Westjustice is a community legal centre that provides free legal and financial advice, representation, education, community development, advocacy, and policy advocacy in the Maribyrnong, Hobsons Bay, Wyndham, Brimbank and Melton Local Government Areas.

This submission examines problems and solutions, and proposes reccomendations to issues to related to systemic injustices and cyclic disadvantage; and policing, youth and criminal Justice, incarceration, detention, and the broader legal system.

The Koorie Youth Council is the representative body for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people residing in the state of Victoria.

This submission focuses on the systemic injustices experienced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people who are involved with – or have been impacted by – the criminal justice system and child protection system in the state of Victoria, both historically and contemporarily.

This submission outlines a Warlpiri man’s experience as a Barrister at the Victorian Bar, including instances of lateral violence and racism from legal practitioners.