Wednesday, 27 November 2024

Production of documents

Police conduct

Rachel PAYNE (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (10:12): I move:

That this house:

(1) notes that in the consultation paper for the systemic review of police oversight, the Victorian government acknowledged:

(a) Victoria Police’s complaints process requires improvement to effectively manage conflicts of interest;

(b) concerns about conduct in relation to Aboriginal children and young people;

(c) that the current system of independent investigation of serious police misconduct allegations fails to meet community expectations;

(2) further notes that the final report for the systemic review of police oversight was delivered to the government in 2022 and has not been made public; and

(3) requires the Leader of the Government, pursuant to standing order 10.01, to table in the Council, within four weeks of the house agreeing to this resolution, the final report from the systemic review of police oversight.

I rise to make a brief contribution on the motion in my own name before the chamber. It has been two long years since this government received the final report of the systemic review of police oversight. In those two years we have seen (1) IBAC’s most commonly received complaint being complaints against Victoria Police, (2) more than 95 per cent of complaints made to IBAC about Victoria Police sent back to police for investigation, (3) in the 2022–23 financial year almost 70 per cent of investigations by Victoria Police recommended no action and in only 0.34 per cent of those cases was termination recommended and (4) IBAC commenced investigations for only 23 of the 4000 allegations and almost 2000 complaints made to them against Victoria Police in 2023. Further work done by IBAC in their strategic assessment of Victoria Police 2022–23 acknowledged that key police misconduct risks include misuse of police powers and resources, predatory behaviour, relationships with criminal networks, racial profiling, sexual harassment, excessive use of force and police-perpetrated family violence.

In this context it can be no surprise that public satisfaction with police has fallen to a historic low and the calls for reform of police oversight are at an all-time high. As highlighted in the motion, these are issues that the government is well aware of. We already know that the Victoria Police complaints process needs to be improved to effectively manage conflicts of interest, we already know that there are concerns about the conduct in relation to Aboriginal children and young people and we already know that the independent investigation of police misconduct allegations is failing. We knew all of this before the systemic review of police oversight even began.

So why is it that two years later the final report has never been made public? One reason that has been suggested is that it is because the government is still considering reform options. It is deeply concerning to us that this would be the only justification for not publishing this report. We believe in integrity in government, and we believe in transparency. This report should be released so that we can all do our jobs as crossbenchers and hold the government accountable to the findings of the review. If we do not have the report available to us, how can we be assured that the government’s response to the review, if there is one, has listened to the advice on how we will ensure that those who so bravely shared their lived experiences are heard?

We want to be clear: we acknowledge that the work is already underway, and we do not expect the government to be able to solve systemic problems overnight. We appreciate that it does take time to ensure that we do get this right. However, not only do we need to keep Victorians safe, we also need to keep them informed. We ask them to engage and work with us – to share their stories in what is often a retraumatising experience. We owe it to them to share the findings of that consultation and not to make them wait in limbo for years and years on end. Those who were failed by this system are now being made to feel like they are being failed time and time again. That is why we have brought forward this motion today, requiring the tabling of the final report on the systemic review of police oversight.

Ryan BATCHELOR (Southern Metropolitan) (10:16): I am pleased to rise to speak on the documents motion moved by Ms Payne seeking documents in relation to the consultation paper for the systemic review of police oversight. Obviously it is not a secret, it is in the public domain that the government, through the Attorney-General and the Department of Justice and Community Safety, has been undertaking work doing a systemic review of police oversight. It is an important part of our integrity system to understand the ways that the actions of Victoria Police are oversighted. As we all know, there are very complex and sensitive issues here.

I think it is important that I clarify in the context of this documents motion seeking access to the final report of the systemic review of police oversight that this motion is seeking a consultation summary that captures the feedback received from the stakeholders through the consultation process. There is no final report from that consultation process. There is no consolidated report, as in something that is handed and delivered to the government. It is an ongoing work program that exists within the department. The policy development process that the government, through the public service, undertakes in policy areas such as this does not always result in the kind of report or document that is envisaged existing in the documents motion. It does not always exist in the form that I think that the documents motion seeks to find. This is not to say the work is not going on, but the sort of consolidated consultation report that is sought in this documents motion is not the way that this particular piece of policy development was undertaken. This is a way of saying the work has been done but the specific document that the motion implies exists and seeks production of does not, and there is a distinction between those two things. It is perhaps a quirk of occasionally how the public service undertakes its policy development process and the work of undertaking legislative reform that something labelled in the way that this document that is being sought to be retrieved through this process is characterised is not in fact the document that has been produced.

Again, it is not to say that the work is not being undertaken, and it is not to say that the systemic review is not going through the normal way that legislative reform and policy development occur. It is just that in the terms of the motion, the documents sought, there is that distinction that should be drawn. It is obviously complex work. The government is undertaking it in a way to get it right. We want to make sure that we can put forward a practical model to keep our police accountable – the exercise of their powers meeting the needs of the range of communities across Victoria – and keep all Victorians safe. We are committed to reforming police oversight with a focus on the experience of those who have experienced misconduct at the hands of police and to make sure they are supported throughout the process and treated fairly and in a culturally safe way.

Obviously, as with Ms Payne, being a member of the Integrity and Oversight Committee, we have an understanding of the way that our integrity agencies, including IBAC, undertake their police oversight functions. It is something that that committee continually, including at some hearings on Monday of this week, seeks to understand – the systemic operation of the police oversight functions. We will continue as a government to work with agencies and with Victoria Police to make sure that these processes are improved. The work on police oversight reform is well progressed, and I am sure that the resolution of that work is not far away.

David DAVIS (Southern Metropolitan) (10:21): I rise on motion 751, brought to the chamber by Ms Payne. It is a documents motion. It is a straightforward documents motion. I must admit to having some cautious concern on this one, lest it be interpreted that in any way I or the Liberals and Nationals are not supportive of our police force, who deserve our greatest level of support. In line with our general practice we will not oppose this motion because transparency is an important role of this chamber and this seeks documents. It actually is not a broader policy motion; it simply seeks a document. I listened carefully to what was said by the government speaker, and it seems to me that it may be that there are iterations of this document that are in existence, and the intent and effect of Ms Payne’s motion is to obtain the most recent or other iterations of those documents. In that sense, I think the intent of the motion is clear.

As I say, we will not oppose this, but I do not want our support for, or non-opposition to, a transparency motion to leave anyone with any doubt about our overwhelming support for our policewomen and policemen, who do enormously good work in our community. As we have seen with the rise in violence, I think it is important that we are seen to be supportive of our policewomen and policemen. They have a very tough job to do. They have a tough job to stand up to the forces of disorder and violence that are so much a part of our community, unfortunately, and increasingly so under this government as it reaches its 10-year mark. We see home invasions and other terrible crimes being committed, and I can say to the chamber that this is not a casual point that I am making here. I have held four or five consultation forums in Southern Metropolitan Region in recent months, and at every single one of those people have risen to say that the biggest issue we have in our area is community safety or the fact that there has been a home invasion.

I will quote an example here. At the Mount Waverley forum we recently held, an older man got up and said he had moved into the area more than 40 years ago, but it has only been in last four or five years that there have been regular burglaries and home invasions in his street quite near to the station in Mount Waverley. It is important to understand that there is actually an upsurge in a particularly nasty form of violence, and it is our police men and women who have to stand up on behalf of the community and deal with many of these offenders. I just want to be quite clear that our support for them is very strong, and on this occasion we will not oppose the motion, in line with our general practice.

Georgie PURCELL (Northern Victoria) (10:25): I will be brief to allow other members the time to speak on this documents motion. However, I just want to put it on the record that I too have asked the Attorney-General’s office to release this report twice this year, only to receive the same response both times that the government is taking the time to get it right – ‘it’ being the reforms, not the report itself, since it is already completed and that is exactly what we have asked for.

It seems questionable that this government cannot share the final report in the meantime, but I am not sure whether the fact is that they cannot or that they will not or that they do not want to. They will not share it because they do not want Victorians to see the endemic Victoria Police corruption, illegal conduct, racial profiling, abuse and incompetence. It seems that the government is scared to show what Victoria Police are capable of, because it will reflect poorly on the government that the police have been complicit in First Nations people being 11 times more likely to be searched than white people last year and show that the government is slow in addressing this.

All we are asking is for Victorians to see the recommendations needed to improve our police force and to give us a report that they said would better meet the needs of complainants and victims of police misconduct, including victim-survivors of family violence, which is so necessary right now, and also the needs of Aboriginal people. If this government wants to stop violence against women, it must start with Victoria Police, who are responsible for the decision to charge it or, often, ignore it. I thank Ms Payne for bringing this important documents motion here today, and I commend it to the house.

Katherine COPSEY (Southern Metropolitan) (10:27): I rise to speak on this morning’s documents motion in Ms Payne’s name. I thank her for bringing it. The Victorian Greens will be supporting this motion. Police powers flow from the state, and it is therefore fundamentally the state’s responsibility to ensure that these powers are not abused. Police must be accountable in their actions when interacting with citizens, and they should not be policing themselves. We must not allow the current situation to continue, when 98 per cent of complaints against Victoria Police end up with a police internal investigation. We see research and opinion polls showing us declining community trust in police, with more than one in five Victorians reporting in 2022 that they no longer have confidence in police integrity. Victoria Police should be concerned that the public – the people that they are appointed to serve – have such little trust in their behaviour. Abuse of force or power has a profound and detrimental impact on all those who experience it. It ripples out to families and entire communities, undermining safety, self-worth and belonging, and it can contribute to eroding faith in the institutions of democracy and the rule of law. Even minor excesses by police have a significant impact on the community. The abuse of police power impacts most upon the already vulnerable, such as the young, people who are experiencing mental illness, disabled people, those from refugee and migrant backgrounds and Indigenous Australians. Nerita Waight, CEO of the Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service, said:

We know from working with our clients that there is a huge amount of police misconduct that goes on without being recorded or reported on. If Victorian’s knew the full extent of misconduct committed by Victoria Police, this record low rating would soon be surpassed. The … Victorian Government must establish independent police oversight.

First Nations legal and community stakeholders have been calling for the establishment of an independent police ombudsman in Victoria, and in particular the Yoorrook Justice Commission last year was clear and unequivocal that the government must urgently create a purpose-built police oversight authority. This government has been saying since at least 2018 that it is working on a police oversight reform. This must continue with haste. The motion today is calling for the release of the final report for systemic review of police oversight, which has been stalled for targeted consultation for two years. A significant number of individuals and organisations made submissions to that review, and they deserve to read the final report, as do all Victorians. Instead we feel that the report will be kept in this continued closed circle, which lacks openness and transparency. When we look around the world at the crumbling levels of trust that citizens are experiencing in even the most robust of democracies, we see how the fractures can affect even the strongest institutions. Surely, then, we need to be more transparent, not less. It is time to see this report.

David ETTERSHANK (Western Metropolitan) (10:30): Taking on board the advice of Mr Batchelor in his contribution, I seek leave of the house to move an amendment to the motion. I move:

That in paragraph (3), for ‘final report from the systemic review of police oversight’ substitute ‘final report for the systemic review of police oversight and/or any related reports’.

Amendment agreed to; amended motion agreed to.