Wednesday, 2 April 2025

Victoria Police

Anasina GRAY-BARBERIO (Northern Metropolitan) (18:13): (1559) My adjournment matter this evening is for the Minister for Police. Minister, the action I seek is a briefing on the progress of the transparency and accountability monitoring group, established in 2018, to address the deep concerns I have about racial profiling. Despite Victoria Police banning racial profiling in August 2015, discrimination of racialised groups is still prolific within Victoria’s institutions.

In the 2013 Haile-Michael court case 17 African and Afghan children in Flemington and North Melbourne were assaulted, unlawfully searched, falsely imprisoned, harassed and racially abused by police. Their landmark victory in court led to changes in in-field contact policies and procedures for Victoria Police, eventually leading to racial profiling becoming illegal a few years later. A study of 2013 by Hopkins and Popovic found the police in Victoria continue to disproportionately stop and target people based on race and not crime. Aboriginal, African, Pasifika and Middle Eastern Muslim appearing people face the most unjustified stops and mistreatment. Further to this, the Centre Against Racial Profiling found that First Nations Victorians were 11 times more likely to be searched than white Victorians. Victoria Police state they have zero tolerance for racial profiling, yet it is difficult to see consistency in reporting mechanisms for transparency and oversight. The question remains: how can we assess the scale of this issue or promote accountability if it is only mandated in certain contexts?

With the recent expansion of police powers, it is more important now than ever that the police and government carefully balance community safety with civil liberties. To do that, the police must consistently monitor perceived ethnicity in all areas of their work. Minister, I welcome your briefing to discuss this further and hear more about the progress of the transparency and accountability monitoring group.