The federal racism inquiry crossed the country this week. What did it hear?

The federal racism inquiry crossed the country this week. What did it hear? Sat 18 Jul 2026 at 5:24am Warning: this story contains offensive comments. Imagine standing in a crowd, enjoying a day out during the summer holidays and a bomb falls at your child's feet. Or losing a loved one to a hit-and-run crash and the driver sends a text to his friends calling the victims "dogs", "oxygen thief" and a "two for one combo," adding "it was pretty funny watching them roll around on the road after going over my bonnet". These are just some of the traumatic experiences shared by First Nations people before the federal inquiry into racism, hate and violence toward Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people this week. The inquiry was announced in the wake of the alleged terror attack on an Invasion Day rally in Perth in January and a violent neo-Nazi attack on Camp Sovereignty in Melbourne last August. Committee chair and Labor senator Jana Stewart — a Mutthi Mutthi and Wamba Wamba woman — told the ABC the evidence she's heard so far shows that "racism is alive and well" in Australia. While many testimonies have been "distressing", Ms Stewart said a lot of the evidence was not surprising for First Nations people but vital for the public record. Many pointed to a rise in overt racism since the 2023 Voice referendum, with the senator saying it had "given licence for people to target some of that hate and violence towards First Nations people". 'Distinct pattern' of silence Renae Isaacs-Guthridge was first to give evidence in Perth on Monday and told the inquiry the homemade bomb allegedly tossed into the Invasion Day rally landed at her family's feet. "We should be dead because it landed right in front of us," the Noongar Yamatji yorga and Curtin University academic said. Although the bomb failed to detonate, it was designed to be a "mass casualty event", police said. Ms Isaacs-Guthridge said in the days afterwards the attack didn't receive the public condemnation it should have from all sides of politics. "There was obviously a distinct pattern of people who said absolutely nothing," she said. "I believe because we were an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander crowd, there is an underlying hate against us and so we're not taken as seriously. "It's just not as important." 'Will of leadership has wavered', says Wyatt Ken Wyatt told the inquiry he wants national cabinet to give the same weight to its findings as to the Royal Commission into Antisemitism and Social Cohesion, set up in the wake of the Bondi terror attack. "I suspect out of [the Royal Commission] will come a number of recommendations to do with changing attitudes and racist behaviour towards the Jewish community of Australia," he told the ABC after giving evidence. "If we're prepared to do that, then we need to put just as much effort and energy into addressing racism that is faced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in this country. They are the First Peoples of the nation." Mr Wyatt, a former Minister for Indigenous Australians of Noongar, Yamatji and Wongi heritage, said the "will of leadership has wavered" since the Voice referendum in 2023. "I had a minister say to me after the referendum was lost, 'Well, that stops my effectiveness in wanting to reform because that will impact on the election outcome for our government in the future, so we will go softly, softly'," he said. He said current era of race relations reminded him of "some three decades ago". "[There's] the overt cockiness of some individuals who believe they can say whatever they want to, the Welcome to Country and ANZAC services being booed." He shared with the ABC some of his own experiences of racism, including an incident when he was standing on a Perth street with then-Labor Senator Pat Dodson. "Next minute, a car went past, and both of us were sprayed with water, and a comment was made," he said. He said as minister he was called a "token Aboriginal" by staff in a colleague's office and has experienced "blatantly racist" trolling online. Rising tide of social media hate The inquiry has heard growing calls for social media platforms to be held responsible for moderating and removing racist comments. Some organisations said they'd been forced to close comments on their pages, restricting a vital source of communication with their communities. Barb Shaw from the Central Land Council read aloud some of the harmful comments on a community Facebook page. They ranged from "these people are totally out of control, time for high velocity lead therapy" to calls to "bring back public flogging". Graeme Smith from Lhere Artepe Aboriginal Corporation told the Alice Springs inquiry that Aboriginal people were even being harassed on the street for the purpose of social media content. "People will follow us around at two or three in the morning with their phones just waiting for an incident to capture us and put it up live." Aboriginal people 'blamed for government failure' Many Indigenous leaders spoke out against the Northern Territory government's recent moves to amend the Aboriginal Child Placement Principle and detain children in watch houses for up to 48 hours without charge. "The way they're tightening up the noose to watch our people, to disempower our people to the core, and it's quite appalling," Northern Land Council chair Matthew Ryan, of Barabarra, Wurrpann, and Gurindiji descent, told the Darwin hearings. He likened child removal, over-incarceration and suicide rates to "modern-day slavery". Shirleen Campbell, an Anmatyerre and Arrernte woman from the Tangentyere Women's Family Safety Group, said she fears children will lose their culture under changes to child protection. "We've been banging on doors for governments to come sit with our women to actually have the deep listening, two-way learning and understanding," she said. "Without our culture, our kids will forget their identity and who they are, which will create more violence in the community as well." The Lhere Artepe Aboriginal Corporation told the inquiry Aboriginal people were "too often blamed for the visible symptoms of government failure," citing poverty, trauma and under-investment in bush communities. Calls for law reform The Northern Land Council called for racial vilification against Aboriginal people to be criminalised and for racial hatred to be recognised as an aggravating factor for all relevant offences. Its CEO Yuseph Deen told the inquiry many council members felt the home detention sentence handed to hit-and-run driver Jake Danby was "a slap in the face". Danby hit two Aboriginal pedestrians in his car in 2024 — one of whom later died — and then fled the scene, later boasting about the crash in text messages. Others called for independent oversight of progress under the National Closing the Gap Agreement and the establishment of a Makarrata Commission for truth-telling. "Truth telling is not a symbolic exercise. It is the precondition for healing, and healing is the pre-condition for reconciliation," Minang-Goreng Noongar Elder Dr Jim Morrison said. "Without sustained investment in both, this committee's recommendations risk becoming another report that acknowledges harm without addressing it." Independent senator Lidia Thorpe told reporters the federal government must act on the inquiry's findings. "My people have been pouring their hearts out, being re-traumatised, telling their lived experiences of being racially attacked every moment of their lives," she said. "If we come up with really good recommendations and the federal Labor Government does not implement those recommendations, then what does that say to our people? "What does that say to the country?" Governments urged to engage The Northern Territory and Queensland governments were the only state or territory governments not to make a submission to the inquiry. Ms Stewart described the NT government's absence from the hearings this week as "disappointing" and a "missed opportunity". The NT government was contacted for comment but declined to say why its agencies had not attended. The Queensland government said it was "focused on investing in projects which deliver tangible outcomes", including health and infrastructure projects under its Closing the Gap fund. The committee's report is due in September and Ms Stewart said she was conscious of the need for it to deliver concrete outcomes. "I definitely feel a real sense of responsibility in hearing people's stories then to respond in a way then does that justice," she said. "I do not want to see another report gather dust on a shelf."