SENATOR JANA STEWART 

MUTTHI MUTTHI AND WAMBA WAMBA 

SENATOR FOR VICTORIA 

TRANSCRIPT 

E&OE TRANSCRIPT DOORSTOP PARLIAMENT HOUSE, CANBERRA 

THURSDAY, 5 MARCH 2026 

Topics: Inquiry into Racism and Violence Against First Nations People; Aunty Pat Turner’s Retirement; Closing the Gap 

JANA STEWART: I want to begin firstly by acknowledging Aunty Pat Turner, who yesterday announced her retirement. I want to acknowledge her and thank her for her dedicated decades of service to the Aboriginal community and to the nation. The Prime Minister and the Minister for Indigenous Australians, Malarndirri McCarthy, put out a statement last night thanking her, and I associate myself with their comments. Thank you to Aunty Pat Turner. 

The Minister for Indigenous Australians has written to the committee that I chair, the Joint Standing Committee for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs, asking the committee to consider adopting a Terms of Reference looking into racism, hate, and violence directed at First Nations people in our country. I'm pleased to say that the committee considered those terms of reference yesterday, and we've adopted them. 

It is a really important time for our Parliament to be thinking about and hearing from First Nations communities about the rise in prevalence of racism and violence directed at the community, particularly off the back of the attempted terrorist attack at the Invasion Day rally in Boorloo, Perth, the attack on Camp Sovereignty in Naarm in Melbourne, and more recently, the racist attacks towards First Nations players at the Fitzroy Stars Netball Club. 

Now, these are just three incidents recently that have made the media. We know that the experience of racism towards First Nations people is felt every day, whether it's being refused service when we go into a shop, whether it's on the football field, or whether it's in our workplaces. It's really important right now that First Nations communities feel seen and heard in their experiences of being Australian and First Nations Australian in this country. One of the things that I'm really looking forward to is hearing what some practical solutions are that the government can and should do to support people while they're doing it really tough. 

In my mind, racist attacks that have been experienced by First Nations people are hugely out of step with Australian values—Australian values of decency, fairness, and respect. An attack on First Nations Australians is an attack on all Australians. I'm really looking forward to seeing what comes forward, what submissions are made to the inquiry, and then where we land come September when the inquiry is due to report. 

JOURNALIST: We recently had the latest Closing the Gap report which shows that progress is still quite slow. How disappointed are you by that? 

JANA STEWART: I’m incredibly disappointed by that. I recall being a teenager sitting in a classroom hearing about the Closing the Gap statistics and hearing as a 15 or 16-year-old about how I was less likely than my peers to go to university or to own a house. If you grew up in a home where there was violence, which I did, you were more likely to end up in a violent relationship. It is really sad that lots of those indicators have not changed for First Nations communities. 

But it is one of the things, I suppose, that I'm pleased for in terms of doing the inquiry into the racism experienced by First Nations people, because the outcomes for Closing the Gap are not disconnected from the racism experienced by First Nations people in this country. I think lots of First Nations communities would say there is a direct correlation between the Closing the Gap outcomes and racism. So, I think there will probably be strong links that are drawn through the inquiry to Closing the Gap and racism. Thanks so much. 

[ENDS] 

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