121 Indigenous Victorians died by suicide — Victoria must fund the healing centres it promised

One hundred and twenty‑one Indigenous Victorians have taken their own lives in the five years since a royal commission into mental health issued its final report. That simple, terrible fact should be a political emergency. The commission recommended First Nations healing centres in 2021. Yet the peak Aboriginal health service in Victoria says the state has ‘‘done nothing’’ to fund them. When a formal inquiry collects evidence, hears suffering and proposes remedies, the public expects action. In this case, action would not be symbolic. It would mean properly resourced, culturally safe services designed and run by First Nations people — services explicitly recommended after a thorough inquiry into mental‑health failings. The deaths recorded after March 2021 are a grim measure of what happens when recommendations sit on a shelf. For families and communities already carrying the legacy of dispossession, trauma and disadvantage, the absence of agreed, funded supports is not an administrative detail: it is the difference between having somewhere to turn in crisis and being forced to navigate systems that were not built for them. Victoria’s government must answer two questions now: why have the healing centres not been funded, and what concrete, time‑bound steps will stop further deaths? Those answers should be public, not buried in internal briefings. Policy responses need not be complicated to start. Funding commitments should be accompanied by clear governance arrangements that place First Nations organisations in charge of design and delivery. Short‑term crisis supports must be expanded while longer‑term healing services are established. Measuring outcomes should be mandatory and transparent so communities and the broader public can see whether promises translate into fewer tragedies. This is not merely a matter for Indigenous communities. The credibility of public inquiries depends on governments acting on their findings. If recommendations are ignored without explanation, inquiries become performative rather than preventive. That harms everyone’s trust in public institutions and weakens the social contract. Victoria has evidence of what needs to be done and a timetable set by the royal commission. The state should stop treating that report as historical record and start treating its recommendations as urgent public policy. Funding the First Nations healing centres is the measure of whether words will be matched by lives saved.