One of Victoria's leading Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island family violence prevention organisations has called for more investment in Aboriginal-led Family Violence Services, in a submission to the parliamentary inquiry into capturing data on family violence perpetrators.

Legal service Djirra said they welcomed the growing recognition of the need to do more to combat serial perpetrators of family and sexual violence against Indigenous women, calling for the interests of those most at risk from family violence to be prioritised above all else.

Furthermore, they argued any discussion of perpetrator data must consider the extent of "police misidentification of Aboriginal women as perpetrators of family violence".

The last point, the Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisation (ACCO) submitted, continues to have significant adverse impacts on women and children's safety.

"For example, up to 58 per cent of women on Community Protection Orders in Victoria have been misidentified as perpetrators," Djirra's acting chief executive, Antoinette Gentile, said.

"In addition to the impacts on women and children's safety, misidentification leads to Aboriginal women's criminalisation, incarceration and removal of their children."

Before an appearance at the Yoorrook Justice Commission truth-telling hearings earlier this month, the Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service (VALS) argued Victorian police often treat family violence call outs as "roll your eyes" matters and wrongfully accusing Aboriginal women of being perpetrators of domestic violence.

The hearings were told the majority of Aboriginal women in Victoria have non-Indigenous partners, with this number rising to 85 per cent in Narrm.

Aboriginal women are 45 times more likely to experience family violence than non-Aboriginal women, with the numbers of Aboriginal women and children experiencing family violence - including those who have been murdered - continuing to escalate.

At her appearance before Yoorrook, Ms Gentile said 90 per cent of family violence against Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women went unreported in Victoria.

"Djirra has supported women who have reported violence to police only to be issued with a warrant for their arrest, often over poverty-related offending such as unpaid fines," she told the commission.

Antoinette Gentile, Djirra: "We are tired of seeing our women being killed, seriously injured or missing, whether that be by a person who uses violence or because of failed government systems and processes which see our women incarcerated and die. /1

— Yoorrook Justice Commission (@yoorrookjc) June 14, 2024

Djirra said more needed to be understood about the increased risk and vulnerability faced by Indigenous women in circumstances where men had previously committed violence acts.

Urging immediate action in capturing data on family violence perpetrators in their submission, Djirra called on the government to ensure specialist family violence services have direct access to the Central Information Point (CIP), i.e., criminal record of someone.

They also recommended the establishment of a formal mechanism to quickly correct errors and misinformation held by police, child protection, CIP, and other government record holders; as well as investing in specialist Indigenous-led family violence services like Djirra in order for them to "develop more robust perpetrator data consistent with Indigenous data sovereignty".

"In Djirra's experience, judicial decision-makers generally correct the information on court files when presented with evidence to the contrary, but these errors (some minor, some significant) are rarely corrected on Police records," Ms Gentile said.

"Djirra's frontline workers report that it is difficult, time-consuming, and sometimes impossible for services like Police and child protection agencies to correct their records, even when a court has found that an Aboriginal woman experiencing family violence was the victim not the perpetrator.

"A perpetrator data system which values the safety of women and children must include straightforward and accessible mechanisms for correcting misidentification."

Djirra's case management teams, or individual support services (ISS), access external perpetrator data through the CIP, and via the family violence information sharing scheme (FVISS) and child information sharing scheme (CISS). However, they have no direct access to the CIP, having instead to use a slower application process, known as the Orange Door (TOD).

"This process is quite slow which impacts negatively on the safety of women we support," Ms Gentile said in the submission.

The organisation said they "primarily" collect data from family court documents, direct requests, or freedom of information (FOI) requests — the latter of which the police - Djirra argues - average around 35 weeks, "with Police extending the statutory period (30 or 45 days) many times over".

In one case, a Djirra lawyer obtained FOI police documents for a client after 19 months.

"These types of delays obstruct justice, and sometimes adversely impact women and children's safety," Ms Gentile said.

The parliamentary committee is expected to report their findings no later than 26 November this year.

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