Vacro fully and wholeheartedly supports a Yes vote for the upcoming referendum to recognise Australia’s First Peoples in our Constitution by enshrining an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice to Parliament, as described in the Uluru Statement from the Heart.

We believe that First Nations people should have self-determination over their health and prosperity and over the task of overcoming the significant systemic disparities resulting from hundreds of years of colonisation. We recognise that sovereignty was never ceded and must never be denied.

As the only specialist criminal justice reintegration service in Victoria, Vacro witnesses the ongoing effects of colonialism and the systemic discrimination it has constructed. We see how it pervades the criminal justice system and impacts our participants. We support the Voice because we believe that First Nations people have the solutions to address the over-incarceration of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and we fully endorse their power to do so.