What happens to my submission?
Once you have made a submission on the Yoorrook website or with the help of a Yoorrook Truth Receiver, it goes through the process outlined below.
Yoorrook receives lots of submissions, so sometimes this process can take a few months. Every submission is important. We thank you for your patience while we work through these steps.
Saved on a secure system
First, your submission, or the recording of your conversation taken by a Truth Receiver, is given a tracking number and saved on a secure computer system.
Anything that you have told us about how you want your information used (for example, if you only want your submission used anonymously) is recorded here too.
Read by Yoorrook
Next, your submission is read by Yoorrook. All submissions help to inform Yoorrook’s final report and recommendations for change. The final report and recommendations will be given to the government and First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria in 2025.
If you have told us that you do not want your submission to be published, this is where the process ends.
Making a transcript and statement
If you have made a submission with a Truth Receiver and you have agreed that your
submission can be published, the audio of your story will be turned into a written transcript. This is an exact record of what was said during your conversation. It might be very long.
You can choose for your whole transcript to be used as your published submission, or you can choose for your transcript to be made into a shorter written statement. Your Truth Receiver will ask you whether you would like your submission to be made into a statement.
The statement will keep the same language you used in your conversation with your Truth Receiver and include all the important information, but it will be shorter and easier to read than the whole transcript.
If a statement is made, a Yoorrook staff member will send it back to you to make sure you are happy or make any changes you would like.
They will also talk with you about any parts of your statement that can’t be published because they contain sensitive information (see more below). You approve the final version of the statement once any changes are made.
Reviewed for publication
Before it can be published your submission is checked for sensitive information. Sensitive information can include:
- names, addresses or signatures
- health or medical information
- information about children or other people
- criminal allegations
- details of crimes you may have committed but have not been found guilty of
- serious personal criticism
Yoorrook may be legally required to redact sensitive information before your submission can be published. Yoorrook reserves the right not to publish all or part of a submission if it considers it inappropriate to do so.
For written submissions, redacting looks like a black mark that covers the sensitive information on the page. On a video or sound recording, redacting may mean bleeping some words.
Redacting means that your submission can still be published but the sensitive information in it cannot be read or heard by anyone outside of Yoorrook.
In some cases, if a submission is mainly about sensitive information, Yoorrook may not be able to publish it. Submissions that cannot be published are still important – they will still be read by Yoorrook and help make recommendations for change.
