Indigenous community feels 'forgotten' in nation's capital after two decades of Labor
Australia's capital has a racism problem.
Indigenous people in Canberra are more likely to have experienced racial prejudice than anywhere else in the country, according to Closing the Gap data.
Goomeri and Bigumbul woman Paula McGrady has spent decades working in the community sector and says Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders in the ACT "live on the edge of something happening".
"Every Australia Day I would say to my youngest son, because he's a lot darker than me, 'When you go out be very careful, stay with your mates'," she said.
"That fear is still in me that my son could be subjected to danger by being racially abused."
Racism in Canberra extends beyond person-to-person vilification.
In July, the Jumbunna Institute at the University of Technology Sydney released a review into the over-representation of First Nations people in the ACT's criminal justice system.
Paula McGrady says her guidance was often ignored during her time advising the ACT government. (ABC News: Simon Beardsell)
Ms McGrady said all racism — whether overt, institutional or systemic — triggered the same emotional reaction across the Indigenous community.
"I feel it first," Ms McGrady said, pointing to the centre of her chest.
"It's intergenerational trauma, we are born into that fear.
"When somebody's racist, they're racist against my identity, my people, my parents, my ancestry that made me who I am today."
Health reports reveal that racism towards Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people also increases the risk of anxiety, depression, self-harm and death by suicide.
And after 24 years of Labor, or Labor-Greens government in the ACT, there is a broad feeling of exhaustion and frustration in the First Nations community at a lack of progress in improving outcomes.
Like so many other parts of the country, trust has been ground down by the inability of successive governments to close the gap in key areas, repeating patterns of trauma.
The ACT's Indigenous population is relatively small and the territory's broader population is largely affluent and left leaning.
"I was proud that Canberra was the only jurisdiction in Australia to vote yes in the referendum," Wiradjuri woman and respected community leader Katrina Fanning told an ACT Legislative Assembly inquiry in October.
"There is no excuse for the ACT not to be leading the nation on every aspect of closing the gap.
"If not here in Canberra, with all our resources, compassion and courage, then where? If not us, then who? If not now, then when?"
Canberra's 'forgotten about' Indigenous kids
Bundjalung and Yorta Yorta man Joe Hedger is the founder of the not-for-profit Cuz Boxing gym.
On any given weekday afternoon the gym in Canberra is rammed; the kid's class is their most popular.
Photos of the many Indigenous kids and adults who have used the Cuz Boxing gym. (ABC News: Adam Kennedy)
"We're fixing the failings of government," Mr Hedger said.
"Young people who are forgotten about in education, forgotten about in health, those who are coming out of youth justice."
On one wall of the gym are dozens of photos of kids and adults alike, who have come to the gym improve their footwork, punching technique and mental health.
Mr Hedger said Indigenous kids came to his Cuz Boxing with the same problems today as when he started in 2004.
" We see a lot of young people just feeling angry, frustrated, we also see them feeling let down," he said.
"The effects of institutionalised racism that impacts on those young people."
Cuz Boxing gym in Belconnen was founded by Bundjalung and Yorta Yorta man Joe Hedger in 2004. (ABC News: Adam Kennedy)
Mr Hedger was an active member of the Labor-led Yes23 campaign during the referendum for a Voice to Parliament.
He said more trust and responsibility must be given to Aboriginal community-controlled organisations if progress is to be made.
"It's not government that's going to close the gap, it's community,"Mr Hedger said.
"Part of that requires government to acknowledge that they just may not be capable of delivering against what's required of them."
'Decades of failed attempts'
In the last week of the sitting year, the ACT Legislative Assembly passed the Closing the Gap bill, a measure Indigenous leaders hope will be a circuit breaker in the capital.
Introduced by independent member Thomas Emerson, the bill will require senior public servants to demonstrate their work towards ending the inequality experienced by First Nations people.
Pidjarra and Punthamarra man Maurice Walker, chair of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elected Body, watched the debate on the bill from the public gallery of the assembly.
Joe Hedger says the ACT government should admit it has failed to meet Closing the Gap targets. (ABC News: Adam Kennedy)
Joe Hedger was also in the gallery listening closely to those who spoke for the government; he said one key thing was missing.
" An acknowledgement they actually have failed … I find that it's very difficult for this government to accept that their failure is real, and that failure actually has a human impact on the community," he said.
Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs Suzanne Orr said she was "hopeful" about the future under the new bill, but admitted progress would be slow.
"I've been in the portfolio for a year, this goes back centuries," she said.
"I have stood in the [assembly] chamber and said, 'clearly there are places where government has not done enough and we need to do more,' I've not tried to hide from that or tried to say it's not occurring."
Closing the Gap data from 2025 shows the ACT has improved on seven out of 19 targets, including out-of-home care, education and economic participation.
However, the ACT is worsening another four targets, including child development, housing and youth justice.
Two targets — over representation in the justice system, and connection to country — had not changed.
Eight targets could not be reported on due to a lack of data.
Nationally, four of 19 targets are on track to be met as part of the agreement.
A new bill passed recently by the ACT Legislative Assembly will require senior public servants to demonstrate their work towards ending the inequality experienced by First Nations people. (ABC News: Matt Roberts)
'Heartbreaking' advice not listened to
In the same week the Closing the Gap bill passed, a report from the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elected Body was tabled by the minister.
The report charts the progress on 22 targets agreed to as part of the ACT Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Agreement, signed between the ACT government and the elected body in 2019.
Four of those targets are being met, four are not on track, while eight are worsening, with further six targets without published data for assessment.
In its report, the elected body said the capital's Indigenous community was "now in a worse position than when the ACT agreement was signed".
In 2008, the ACT was the first jurisdiction to establish the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elected Body, which Paula McGrady likened to a "baby version of The Voice" to the Legislative Assembly.
Chief Minister Andrew Barr and his cabinet backed the federal government's 2023 referendum on a Voice to Parliament. (ABC News: Harry Frost)
Ms McGrady served two consecutive terms between 2017 and 2023 on the elected body, including as deputy chair.
She also ran as an independent candidate in Murrumbidgee during the 2024 ACT election under the same political umbrella as Mr Emerson, later consulting with him on the design of the Closing the Gap bill.
Being appointed to the elected body is a part-time position, advising the most senior bureaucrats in the ACT Public Service on First Nations policy.
And Ms McGrady said her advice — based on decades of work across family and domestic violence, sexual abuse, youth justice, homelessness, education, counselling and support — was often ignored.
"It's heartbreaking, because nobody's prepared to listen and to take on what we say,"Ms McGrady said.
"[I'm] not surprised we're not improving in a few key areas because our voice gets watered down along the way and we don't get to have the final say."
Katrina Fanning — a former ACT Australian of the Year and a recipient of the Public Service Medal — was the chair of the elected body during Ms McGrady's term.
In evidence to the assembly inquiry informing the Closing the Gap bill, she said: "We have seen directorates ignore agreed actions, dismiss community advice and resist cultural reform."
"The problem is not that government does not know what to do; the problem is that no one is made to do it."
Cultural competency requirements don't apply to ministers
The Closing the Gap bill will require senior executives to continually develop and demonstrate their and their administrative unit's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural capability.
However, these requirements do not extend to those people advised by public servants, namely government ministers.
ACT Indigenous Affairs Minister Suzanne Orr says making progress towards the Closing the Gap agreement is an ongoing process. (ABC News: Adam Shirley)
This leaves Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs) to judge for themselves whether their cultural capability, garnered from aggregated interactions with the First Nations community, is sufficient to carry out their duties.
"I have trusted people I go out and speak to and seek their advice when I need to do things," Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs Suzanne Orr said.
"There's a range of things that you can do, formal, informal, otherwise … It is continual development that is consistent with the Closing the Gap agreement.
There are no Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander MLAs on the government benches.
And Ms Orr has no First Nations staff in her office.
Ms Orr said the task of rebuilding trust between government and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community was an ongoing process.
"We're going to have to do it one step at a time, I'm certainly aware of that, my colleagues are aware of that, I think the public service is aware of that," she said.
"We will continue to work with the elected body, who represent their community and engage with their community, … to work towards that shared decision-making.
"And hopefully as we progress through, rebuild a bit of that trust."
Since the ABC first interviewed Ms Orr, she has written to the speaker of the Legislative Assembly, recommending cultural awareness training for all MLAs.
She said the training should "broaden their understanding and knowledge, develop cultural capability, and strengthen relationships with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities".