Thousands of protestors gathered on the steps of Parliament House in Melbourne on Tuesday to protest the celebration of January 26 as Australia’s national day. Speakers at the event included Victorian State Senator Lidia Thorpe, who called for a national peace treaty with Aboriginal people to address inequality and related struggles faced by First Nations people. “They still lock our people up, they still kill our people, they still desecrate our land, our water,” she said.

Victoria’s prison population grew by almost 30 per cent in the 5 years from July 2014. The number of people in Victorian prisons increased from 6226 in June 2014 to more than 8000 in June 2019. Prisoner numbers continued to increase until March 2020, when COVID-19 restrictions came into effect in Victoria. Corrections Victoria reported a sharp decrease starting in March and continuing to July of this year. In July, the total number of prisoners was just more than 7000.