Dear Mr Robert Clark, Attorney General of Victoria,

RE: Victims Support Agency (VSA)

It has been very well documented that the VSA may be failing victims of crime as well as potentially impairing their recovery.

In your own words under the VSA it can take many weeks or even months for someone to be able to see a counsellor, even in the case of a very serious crime…and that …very serious concerns are being raised about the adequacy of the service provided by the Victims Assistance and Counselling Program (VACPs).

A recent $250,000.00 tax payer funded audit by the Victorian Auditor General criticised  the Victims Support Agency stating that the waiting time to receive counselling under this model can be up to five months and that the quality of counselling services provided varied.

There has also been a great deal of anecdotal evidence reported in the media confirming these points.

You recently funded the VSA to the sum of some $20 Million even though the VSA has been unable to show that it has met any of its target gaols over the past two years…and that it has failed to show that it actually provides any benefit to victims of crime.

While your efforts to support victims of crime and make such significant amounts of money available are meritorious they may be ill founded due to the lack of transparency by the VSA.

A further issue is that we strongly believe that the VSA has attempted to monopolize the provision of services to victims of crime and at the same time has actively set out to damage any organization which has challenged the VSA and made the public aware of its shortcomings. We implore you to investigate these allegations for which we are prepared to supply you with significant evidence.

We believe that the people who are being negatively impacted by the Victims Support Agency are ironically those that are meant to benefit – victims of crime. What has actually been created is a government department which has little other function than to protect itself with victims of crime again being further victimized by this extraordinary situation.

Mr Robert Clark, for the benefit of victims of crime, we again asked you to investigate these matters.

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