00:01This committee has been holding hearings across the country for the past few months now and
00:06it's been looking at a number of key issues. So one of them is the prevalence, the nature
00:11and the impact of racism, hate and violence directed towards First Nations people.
00:17It's also looking at the extent of online abuse and it's also examining the threat of
00:26ideologically motivated extremism and it's trying to identify as well some measures that can be put
00:33in place to try and prevent some of these harms. And so today we're hearing from a number of
00:37Aboriginal organisations here in Tasmania as well as Aboriginal leaders and elders and one of the
00:44groups we've heard from this morning is called TRACA and TRACA stands for the Tasmanian Regional
00:51Aboriginal Communities Alliance and it says that there's been a significant escalation in racism
00:59since the Voice to Parliament referendum. And its chairman, Nick Cameron, provided an anecdote to
01:06the committee this morning where he held up a photo of a group of Aboriginal rangers that had spent the
01:13day working in the central highlands. And after they had finished working on a very wet day, they took a
01:20photo of themselves standing proudly in front of the Aboriginal flag. That photo they posted on their
01:25social media account and Nick Cameron said within minutes there was a deluge of racist commentary.
01:33Here's what he had to say.
01:35And the Teppercorn Rangers posted this photograph on their social media page the following day.
01:42Within minutes of posting that photo, the comments started. The racial comments about the colour of
01:51their skin. The racial comments about the percentage of Aboriginal blood they must have.
01:57The comments about all the Tasmanian Aboriginal people died. So who are these fake people pretending to be
02:03Aboriginal people? Comments about why are you standing behind an Aboriginal flag?
02:09Why aren't you standing behind the Australian flag? This is divisive. This is un-Australian.
02:16Those comments were so divisive that we actually had to disable the comments on that post.
02:23Janna, who else will be appearing during today's hearing?
02:27Gemma, one of the other groups that will be appearing is the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre and
02:32they've put out a media release this morning in which they say the biggest problem in their
02:39perspective is the issue of systemic racism within government institutions and government legislation.
02:46And they've highlighted what they say is the issue of Aboriginal heritage being under the full control
02:54or the ultimate control of the state rather than being in the hands of Aboriginal people.
03:00Now, we'll also hear from the government today, a number of government departments including
03:04health, education and justice due to give evidence. And they'll be highlighting some of the programs
03:11that they have in place that are designed to improve some of the closing the gap targets and also try
03:19and create culturally safe spaces in educational institutions and health centres as well. And once
03:27things conclude here today in Hobart, this inquiry will move to Melbourne tomorrow and on Friday. And the
03:34focus then will turn to racism, hate and violence in sporting institutions and also media organisations as well.
Comments