Wednesday, 27 November 2024

Statements on tabled papers and petitions

Victorian Inspectorate

Report 2023–24

Ryan BATCHELOR (Southern Metropolitan) (17:18): I rise today to make a statement on the annual report from the Victorian Inspectorate, which was tabled I think in the last sitting week. The Victorian Inspectorate is the independent agency of the Parliament with responsibility for oversighting our integrity agencies. In particular I just want to make note of an update that the inspectorate gave in this annual report on progress made by IBAC on implementing some recommendations in a special report that the inspectorate tabled in October 2022 relating to the case of Emma.

Emma, which is not her real name, was the victim of terrible domestic abuse at the hands of her partner, who was also a serving police officer. The perpetrator in this case pleaded guilty to various offences in February 2020. The inspectorate’s special report found a series of errors in the handling of this case by IBAC. IBAC, as Victoria’s anti-corruption agency, is also charged with oversight of police conduct here in Victoria, and in this instance there were issues with the way IBAC handled this case when it was reported to it. The inspectorate’s report provided a very thorough analysis of how our integrity agencies need to be very well informed about the realities of family violence and how they themselves need to be attuned to the issues of risk when they operate in that context.

On Monday of this week the Integrity and Oversight Committee in our annual performance public hearings into the agencies that we oversight heard from a range of witnesses on the topic of handling family violence matters by our integrity agencies and in particular IBAC’s work. Monday was obviously the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, which falls as part of the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-based Violence, so it was incredibly appropriate that it was on that day that we heard evidence from a range of victim-survivors and also from some organisations that are there to support them.

The courage that was shown by the people who came to give that evidence on Monday was astounding. The stories both that we heard in the course of the day but also that were in the inspectorate’s report were shocking, and they demonstrated that all agencies, whether they be part of the central government or independent of us as agencies of the Parliament, need to do more to make sure that their approach to dealing with cases that involve gender-based violence take a trauma-informed approach and that they are aware of the serious risks that exist through family violence and that victim-survivors of family violence continue to experience over time.

The inspectorate’s report found that IBAC had serious failings in the way that it handled this case as an exemplar of systemic failings in its approach to understanding gender-based violence and responding, particularly in the instances of family violence when serving police officers were the perpetrators, and in this particular case – in Emma’s case – it found that IBAC had fundamentally failed to provide the sort of support and understanding that was necessary. We hope as a result of the inspectorate’s work that processes improve – and certainly the annual report says that processes have improved – at IBAC at a policy level. What we heard on Monday was that practice needs to improve as well, and I hope that this practice continues, because improvement in these very serious and often dangerous cases should be our absolute highest priority.