The final Yoorrook report delivers unapologetic truths
The final recommendations of the Yoorrook Justice Commission call for fundamental change across nearly every major area of public policy in this state.
From how the water and land is managed, to the administration and governance of critical services in health, education, criminal justice and family violence and down to the number of houses built through existing government programs, the Yoorrook recommendations offer a radical blueprint for Aboriginal self-determination.
They also make clear this can only be done at a significant cost to the state, with unquantified money needed to redress past and ongoing injustices and fund Aboriginal control over their own affairs into the future.
The projected cost of redress includes economic loss and non-economic, cultural loss, plus interest owed on both. Given it is 174 years since Victoria was declared a colony, that will amount to quite a tidy sum.
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To finance greater self-determination, including an expanded role for the First Peoples' Assembly currently negotiating a series of treaties with the Allan government, the commissioners recommend the establishment of a new fund, taken as a share of land, water and natural resource related revenues.
How much might such a fund hold?
Amid the bleak familiarity of statistics showing that Aboriginal people are nearly twice as likely to be diagnosed with cancer, three times as likely to die by suicide, 10 times more likely to access homeless services and far less likely to finish high school, another figure stands out.
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