Ombudsman confirms racial bias in Aboriginal teenager’s gunpoint arrest
The Commonwealth and ACT Ombudsman, Iain Anderson, has released his own motion investigation, ‘It’s not him.’, examining ACT Policing’s mistaken arrest of a 17-year-old Aboriginal boy. The boy was pulled from a public bus at gunpoint, forced to the ground and handcuffed in Woden on 11 November 2025, before officers realised they had the wrong person.
The findings reflect what ATSIEB and our community have been calling for for years: a need for genuine consultation, real partnership, and community leadership built into the system from the start, not added on after harm has already been done. This incident is a blow to the fragility of the relationship between ACT Policing and our community. It reflects the systemic racism and unsafe justice environment our community continues to endure.
The Ombudsman found officers had used race as a proxy for a person’s physical appearance, treating ‘Aboriginal’ as a stand-in for dark skin – language the Ombudsman called ‘ineffective, outdated and offensive’. It must stop.
Real accountability starts with leadership. ACT Policing’s own Chief Police Officer has told the Legislative Assembly he does not believe there is institutional racism within ACT Policing – a position that does not match what our community has lived, or what this report has found. Leadership means having the courage to accept that racism is a problem within the system, not defend against it, and to take genuine responsibility for transforming that system rather than leaving our people to carry the cost of its failures.
ATSIEB acknowledges the strong advocacy of Winnunga Nimmityjah Aboriginal Health and Community Services and CEO Julie Tongs, who has spoken out on this case from the start. We support their call for genuine accountability. As the Ombudsman put it, ACT Policing ‘need to in fact really thoroughly demonstrate through their actions on an ongoing basis, that they are not racist’.
ATSIEB Chair, Maurice Walker, said the report’s findings and recommendations confirm a need for a partnership approach to systemic change.
‘One of our highest priorities is genuine, funded partnership between ACT Policing and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, particularly our Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations (ACCOs),’ says Maurice.
‘ACCOs hold the cultural knowledge and community trust that ACT Policing needs, and they must help design every one of the Ombudsman’s eight recommendations – including a proper definition of racial profiling, trauma-informed training, and a properly resourced First Nations Liaison Team – not be consulted once decisions have already been made.’
This report lands within a pattern the ATSIEB has raised before.
‘Training alone is not enough. We need a justice system that is culturally safe, responsive and accountable, in practice, every time,’ Maurice adds.
‘The good work of so many in ACT policing, including our Aboriginal Liaison officers is diminished when racism is not addressed.
‘We will use everything available to us to hold government accountable for implementing every recommendation, in genuine partnership with our community and our ACCOs.’
ATSIEB has raised the issue of systemic racism within ACT Policing before, and there remains a long way to go before it is addressed.
ATSIEB expects the Ombudsman’s eight recommendations to be implemented in full, in partnership with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, so that no other family goes through what this young boy’s family has been through.
Support is available for anyone affected by the issues raised in this media release:
- 13YARN on 13 92 76
- Brother to Brother on 1800 435 799
- Lifeline on 13 11 14
