On 23 July 2018, the LGBTIQ Justice Working Group held its fourth meeting.

The list of members, terms of reference and communiques are available.

Specific matters considered

Working Group members discussed with representatives from Victoria Police issues relating to:

  • the recording of a person’s gender on Victoria Police IT Systems, which is particularly important for transgender Victorians;
  • Victoria Police policies relating to search powers, particularly when searching transgender Victorians; and
  • training for Police on LGBTIQ issues.

Working Group members also discussed with Victoria Police issues relating to prejudice motivated crime, particularly the importance of accurately recording data on the occurrence of prejudice motivated crime and working with LGBTIQ communities to improve the confidence of community members to report prejudice motivated crime to Victoria Police.

Working Group members thanked Victoria Police for attending the meeting and encouraged Victoria Police to continue work on integrating inclusive practice in Victoria Police policies and processes, particularly where there are opportunities to enhance IT system capacity to record a person’s gender identity.

Victoria Police acknowledged that there is a need to further enhance existing processes to police IT systems when someone wants to affirm/change their gender, and will seek to make these enhancements within the context of future upgrades to its personal information management systems.

A representative from the Magistrate’s Court also attended the Working Group meeting to provide members with information on the implementation of recommendations from the Royal Commission into Family Violence Report relating to the Magistrate’s Court.

Working Group members considered an information paper on the impacts of the marriage equality legislation on Victoria’s Relationships Act 2008, which provides for registered relationships. Working Group members discussed possible areas of work that could be progressed on the issues canvassed in the paper.

Next meeting

The Justice Working Group will reconvene for its next meeting on 17 September 2018.

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