Submissions

Consumer Action Law Centre is an independent advocacy organisation offering community legal and financial counselling to support people facing vulnerability and disadvantage. The Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service (VALS), an Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisation (ACCO), provides culturally safe legal services to Aboriginal communities across Victoria.

This report delves into the experiences of First Nations consumers across Victoria, documenting the work of both organisations in providing crucial civil legal and financial counselling support. By integrating client stories and data, it examines intergenerational financial exclusion, housing challenges, and the need for safer systems. The report calls for urgent reforms to break cycles of disadvantage and achieve culturally safe outcomes for First Nations people.

Tiggeress emphasises that First Nations people are the original inhabitants of the land and criticises the lack of respect and recognition in education. They advocate for more housing for at-risk First Nations people, respect for all skin colours, and inclusive cultural practices like painting, bush tucker, and traditional arts to promote understanding and truth-telling.

This submission reflects the Indigenous Hospitality House (IHH) from its beginnings through until the end of 2022. It also primarily reflects the views and experience of the original group of people who initiated and lived at the project during these years. The IHH is a community project in Naarm / Melbourne that uses a property on stolen land to provide a place for First Nations people to stay while visiting family members in hospital.

This submission from a group of Aboriginal Victorians express concerns about growing inequity between Traditional Custodians and all Aboriginal Victorians. They urge the Yoorrook Justice Commission to ensure that voice-truth and treaty processes do not create a caste system, advocating for solidarity, equity, and inclusive policies that address employment, health, housing and education disparities.

Uncle Henry Atkinson is a Wolithiga man. Born in Echuca, his father was born in 1891 and his mother around 1928. Uncle Henry describes the conditions at missions, including the Black Plague, stolen wages and the walk-off at Cummeragunja mission, when people were treated so badly they left and walked as far as Mathoura, Deniliquin, Echuca, Moama and Mooroopna. He describes children later being taken away from their parents, never to see each other again. He remembers segregated classrooms and Aboriginal children not being allowed to play sport or speak language. Uncle Henry also describes his battles to return ancestral remains, the need for housing and the importance of looking after younger generations coming through. Over his life Uncle Henry has gone on to be a champion fireman, General Manager at General Electrics and a Monash University Professor, starting Aboriginal studies courses.

Mungabareena Aboriginal Corporation provides culturally safe services to the Ovens Murray region offering Justice, Health, Family Violence, Family Services and Early Years Programs.

This submission is a transcript in which community members and staff from the Mungabareena Aboriginal Corporation discuss their experiences of being Aboriginal people living in the area, instances of racism, the lack of services around rehabs and transitional housing supports, the education system, and more.

First Nations men in the Metropolitan Remand Centre say one of the biggest issues across the prisons is the high cost of phone calls. It stops people being able to speak with their families, which is something that helps people feel sane and connected. They also talk about the shortage of mental health, methadone, banking, employment, housing and health services, which all have serious flow-on effects.

First Nations men in the Metropolitan Remand Centre describe how they are laughed at, targeted and taunted by prison staff, are sent to isolation for long periods, denied health services and have only restricted access to support, art and culture programs that are ‘taught’ and delivered by whitefellas. They say the across-the-board racism is why there are so many deaths in custody. The things that help are real community cultural programs, secure housing and employment opportunities. They are calling for the cost of phone calls and toiletries to be lowered, to be able to attend funerals and to have cultural packs.

This submission from Duncan Rouch addresses key issues related to homelessness of Aboriginal people, including the number of Aboriginal households on the Victorian Housing Register, the number and nature of Indigenous homelessness, and the chronic underfunding of Aboriginal Housing Victoria. It also offers recommendations for improvement.