Aboriginal children are 14 times more likely than their non-Aboriginal peers to be under youth justice supervision, a Victorian government report reveals.
The Aboriginal Affairs Report 2018, tabled in state parliament on Tuesday, made for shocking reading but also offered hope in some areas.
The number of Aboriginal people, aged 10 to 17, on daily community-based supervision and in detention has dropped from an average of 148 in 2011-12 to 132 in 2016-17.
Aboriginal adults are 12 times more likely than others to be managed by corrective services, with numbers up from 590 to 1495 between 2007-08 and 2016-17.
When it comes to Aboriginal people getting jobs - they are both under-represented in the workforce and over-represented in unemployment.
It's worse for those in regional Victoria, with 24.4 per cent of Aboriginal Victorians jobless in 2014-15 compared to their city peers at 6.5 per cent.
Aboriginal students are lagging behind their non-Aboriginal peers when it comes to reading, writing and numeracy in the classroom across all years, the study found.
About 91 per cent of Aboriginal grade 3 students were at or above the national minimum level for writing in comparison to 96.5 per cent of their peers.
The gap worsens at year 9 as 60.4 per cent were at or above the level compared to about 85 per cent non-Aboriginal students.
Yet 71.3 per cent of Aboriginal Victorians, aged 20 to 24 years, had in 2016 at least finished year 12.
When it comes to health, the rate of premature babies born to Aboriginal mothers is on average about nine per cent per 1000 births in 2014 to 2016.
The rate of expectant Aboriginal mothers smoking during the first 20 weeks was 4.5 times higher in 2016, the report outlined.
Premier Daniel Andrews said the findings reflected the everyday realities for many Aboriginal people and barriers they continued to face.
"Critically, this document also reflects the progress still to be made, shining a bright light and holding governments at every level to account," he said.
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