Victoria’s truth-telling inquiry will be delayed due to the state government’s failure to produce the requested documents on time.
During last week’s hearing, lawyers for the government conceded the delays would affect the commission’s ability to provide an interim and final report within its own deadlines.
On Tuesday morning, Victorian Lieutenant Governor James Angus issued a two-month extension to the Yoorrook inquiry’s second interim report to August 2023.
A further interim report is to be handed down in December, 2024, and the inquiry’s final report will now be handed down twelve months later than planned, on June 30, 2025.
Yoorrook is the first formal truth-telling inquiry into past and ongoing injustices against Indigenous people in Victoria as part of the state’s path to a treaty.
Counsel assisting the Victorian government Georgina Coghlan said the state was making its best efforts to cooperate, after last week saying it had been practically impossible for the government to meet its obligations because of the sheer amount of work required.
“The state continues to make its best efforts to maintain its commitment to being responsive and cooperative,” Coghlan told the inquiry.
Yoorrook chair Eleanor Bourke said the delays had caused significant inconvenience to the commission.
“It has been an unwelcome distraction from the ongoing work that was planned,” Bourke said.
“The Victorian government must do better if we are truly to reckon with the injustice perpetrated against first peoples in the state.”
Commissioner Sue-Anne Hunter said the delays stood in the way of the commission’s mandate to make bold recommendations.
“Unless the state provides us with full and truthful evidence, Yoorrook will not have the necessary information to make such bold recommendations,” Hunter said.
She said the information the commission had received to date had raised concerns “that full and truthful evidence will not be forthcoming”.
Commissioner Travis Lovett highlighted the name of the hearings, Yoorrook, a Wamba Wamba word meaning truth.
“The task in which we have been charged at Yoorrook demands that we have access to the documents that reveal the truth.
“It’s not just a word... It comes with purpose and comes with meaning, Yoorrook, truth.”
