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Reviewing and Responding to the Royal Commission Recommendations

Reviewing the implementation of recommendations from the Royal Commission

The Victorian Aboriginal Justice Agreement (AJA) was established on 1 June 2000, to set the direction for implementing the Royal Commission's recommendations as well as a rigorous monitoring process, through a partnership between the Victorian Government and the Koori community.

This implementation review commenced in 2003 and resulted in a two-volume Victorian Implementation Review of the Recommendations from the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody report, tabled in Parliament on 27 October 2005.

The implementation review was led by two Koori chairpersons under the auspices of the Aboriginal Justice Forum.

Over an 18-month period, the chairpersons and their support team conducted wide-ranging consultations which involved more than 165 meetings with the Koori community and stakeholders. They also received public submissions, collated hundreds of self-assessment reports from key government departments and agencies, and interviewed prisoners and staff at 11 Victorian prisons.

The implementation review contained 164 recommendations aimed at increasing safety in custody and reducing Koori over-representation in Victoria's criminal justice system. The implementation review also recommended that the government and Koori community develop a second phase of the AJA.

Responding to the implementation review

The Victorian Government Response to the Implementation Review of the Recommendations from the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody was released on 27 October 2005.

The response led to the development of a second phase of the AJA (AJA2) in June 2006 to address the justice-related recommendations.