The annual report aims to measure where on the VAAF self-determination continuum our actions are landing and invoke reflection on how to move further along that spectrum.
This year, the Report demonstrates some progress from across DPC’s seven groups. Key achievements include:
- implementing the Stolen Generations Reparations Package with DJCS
- the release of state and sub-state data on the VAAF data dashboard
- the tabling of the 2021 Victorian Government Aboriginal Affairs Report (VGAAR).
As part of DPC’s genuine accountability and truth-telling measures, it is necessary to identify delays as well as successes. Some common barriers to completing actions were noted, including:
- efforts being diverted to the COVID-19 and flood responses
- ambiguity in goals, desired outcomes and metrics
- resourcing and capacity constraints
- data governance and privacy risks.
Overall, the Report has demonstrated a focus on business as usual rather than transformative change. It also highlights that action is largelyconcentrated within the First Peoples-State Relations (FPSR) group. This does not reflect the reality that embedding self-determination is a shared responsibility.
It is a critical function of this Report to encourage reflection, so the development of ambitious new actions for 2023 has been prioritised by DPC groups outside of FPSR. The department acknowledges that bold new ways of working are needed to overcome the legacy of colonisation and dispossession.
Note: as this Report covers the 2022 calendar year, it does not reflect Machinery of Government changes which came into effect on 1 January 2023.
VAAF Self-determination continuum
Updated