Racism against First Nations workers widespread: report

The Gari Yala report has found almost 60 per cent of Indigenous employees experience racism in Australian workplaces.

The story on the ABC website was from Indigenous Affairs reporter, Kirstie Wellauer.

The report also found that among Indigenous workers:

. the majority experienced inappropriate race-based comments and assumptions at work;

. only 40 per cent considered their workplace culturally safe;

. just under half reported often hearing racial slurs or jokes about Indigenous people;

. almost 70 per cent said their workplaces lacked a dedicated racism complaints process, although a process was required by law;

. 63 per cent said their workplace had no anti-discrimination training addressing racism towards Indigenous people.

Gari Yala, meaning 'speak the truth' in Wiradjuri, is the second Indigenous-led survey, covering more than 1000 Indigenous workers and conducted by the Centre for Indigenous People and Work (CIPW) at the University of Technology Sydney.

The report comes as the Australian Parliamentary Joint Standing Committee on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs launches an inquiry into racism against First Nations people.

Professor Nareen Young, Chair of CIPW, said the Centre would make a submission to the inquiry and would seek law reform that ensured employers had a duty to prevent racism.

She said the establishment of the inquiry showed that society was ready for change.

'Clearly [racism] is something that we now all feel that we have the capacity to name and move on', she said.

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In December 2025, the ACT became the first jurisdiction where senior public servants would be required to show evidence of how they were working to end the inequality experienced by First Nations people.

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Picture credit: detail of book cover, Debbie Bargallie, Unmasking the Racial Contract: Indigenous Voices on Racism in the Australian Public Service, AIATSIS, Canberra, 2020.