Victorian Police's cultural awareness training will not be rolled out completely until the end of next year and involves 3.5 hours of education, it was revealed at the Yoorrook Justice Commission this week.

As of March 2023, only 12 per cent of officers had completed the training.

Chief Commissioner Shane Patton told the hearing custody officers were first in line to receive the training.

"It will be six months for the police custody officers, because of the integral role they have in dealing with persons in custody, they will have that done within six months," he said.

"The rollout throughout the organisation… won't finalise until the end of 2024. That slowness of pace which I have already expressed frustration with.

"I will continually no just be monitoring it but pushing it, to see 'can we change? Can we bring that in?'."

Yoorrook Justice Commission deputy chair Sue-Anne Hunter said the drastic overrepresentation of Indigenous people in custody underlined the importance of adequate cultural training.

"With our people getting locked up at ridiculous rates three and a half hours is not good enough, six month wait is still not good enough," she said.

"Your staff hold so much power over people that they need to understand… That should have been mandatory. You've apologised for 170 years yet we get three and a half hours? It's not good enough."

Chief Commissioner Patton agreed.

"Is three and a half hours enough? I would say no," he said.

Commissioner Hunter later wrote: "Vic Police have 3.5 hours of cultural awareness training... to unpack 170 years of systemic racism. That's 3.5 hours to figure out how to treat First Nations people like human beings, which the evidence indicates they do not know how to do."

Dr Tracy Westerman AM, Managing Director of Indigenous Psychological Services, commented:

"Nothing like a bit of cultural awareness training to make you aware of how racist you are. Achieved its awareness objective. How about some neuroscience of racism, behavioural change; psychoeducational programs? That's hardnosed."

The Yoorrook Commissioners were also critical of content contained in internal police training materials.

One "police foundation training" document on Aboriginal cultural awareness included claims that some Aboriginal people consider being a member of the Stolen Generations the "best thing that happened to them". Another document referred to "payback" as an Aboriginal cultural practice.

Commissioner Hunter said she found the content "offensive".

Commissioner Kevin Bell said he was "embarrassed" to read the content, arguing it "denigrated" Indigenous people.

Chief Commissioner Patton said he had not read those documents in full and vowed to immediately review all training material to ensure it did not include similar rhetoric.