Victorian Indigenous leader calls for urgent changes to child protection and justice systems

The Victorian First Peoples’ Assembly co-chair Geraldine Atkinson says ‘we know what needs to be done’. Photograph: Morgan Hancock/AAP

Geraldine Atkinson, co-chair of Victoria’s First Peoples’ Assembly, has warned that urgent reform of the state’s child protection and criminal justice systems cannot wait until a treaty is reached and should happen now.

Atkinson appeared at the Yoorrook Justice Commission on Tuesday morning, telling Victoria’s Indigenous truth-telling inquiry that work was needed to counter the over-representation of First Nations people in the systems.