Almost 60 per cent of Indigenous workers face racism on the job, major study finds

Nearly six in 10 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employees experience racism in Australian workplaces and progress towards eliminating it is so slow it could take more than a century to stamp out racial slurs at work.

Those are among the key findings of Gari Yala 2 (Speak the Truth) – a survey of more than 1,100 Indigenous employees conducted by the Centre for Indigenous People and Work (CIPW) at the University of Technology Sydney. The report was launched at UTS on Wednesday.

The study found 53 per cent of Indigenous employees still experience inappropriate race-based comments and assumptions at work. Only 40 per cent reported their workplace was culturally safe – with 25 per cent saying their workplace was culturally unsafe and 35 per cent describing it as only moderately safe.

CIPW Director Professor Nareen Young said the results are a wake-up call to employers and governments at every level.

“Although there has been some progress since our first report in 2020, racism and lack of cultural safety remain widespread” Professor Young said (via media release).

The study – which follows up on the original 2020 Gari Yala report, meaning ‘speak the truth’ in the Wiradjuri language – found small gains in some areas. More employees now feel safe to share their identity (79 per cent compared with 72 per cent in 2020) and seven of nine forms of racism have eased slightly.

But key markers showed no improvement. Unfair treatment remained at 38 per cent across both studies. High cultural load sat at 63 per cent. And only 21 per cent of workplaces offered both anti-racism training and a complaint process – unchanged from the first report.

Professor Young said at the current rate of progress it could take another 118 years for First Nations workers to never hear racial slurs and jokes at work.

“The increasing numbers of our mob in work where they had previously been excluded form employment market participation has been a great achievement, but these workplaces need to be made safe” she said. “No one should have to suffer vilification and ridicule as part of their conditions of employment.”

The report found 63 per cent of Indigenous employees said their workplace provides no anti-discrimination training addressing racism towards Indigenous people. Even more concerning – 69 per cent said their workplace lacks a racism complaint procedure.

Samantha Webster – Head of First Nations Affairs at NAB – said the NAB Foundation backed the research to improve employment outcomes and build trust.

Professor Young urged the findings be considered by the parliamentary inquiry into racism, hate, and violence directed at First Nations people – announced by Minister for Indigenous Australians Malarndirri McCarthy earlier this month.