First Nations Consultations For the Australian Human Rights Commission 5 Barriers and Enablers 5.1 Decision Making First Nations voices must be central in all decision-making processes. Participants highlighted the importance of genuine consultation and representation in developing policies and programs that affect First Nations communities. Establishing First Nations advisory bodies at local, regional, and national levels is crucial to ensure that First Nations perspectives are integral to policy development and implementation. These bodies should have real decision-making power and not merely serve as advisory panels. The ongoing failure of successive, State, Territory and Commonwealth governments to engage in shared decision making with First Nations communities and Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations is a major contributing factor to ongoing systemic racism, inequalities and failure to improve health outcomes nationally. The National Anti-Racism Framework needs to be supported by commitments to strengthen relevant State and Commonwealth legislation that would ensure the greater right to self-determination of First Nations people. Decision making needs related to the development, implementation and monitoring of the National Anti-Racism Framework need to be evidence-based and aligned to the principles of IDS and IDG. This will also require the development of new and improved reporting and monitoring tools that are strengths-based and better align with First Nations ways of knowing, being and doing. 5.2 Funding Funding was discussed across multiple contexts throughout the consultations. Fundamentally, participants stated that commitment to equitable and transparent funding models are needed. Participants spoke of the frustration of communities being constantly held to the whim of the ‘money managers’ with little to no oversight of the way in which funding was allocated or distributed. A male Elder in Mparntwe spoke of funding cycles being like government commitments in the way that they have a very short lived ‘used by date’. He spoke to the impossibilities of progress under this short-sighted model whilst ‘Colonisation is enduring and everlasting and continues to affect mob everyday’. Sustainable funding is critical for the success of anti-racism initiatives (Tucker et al., 2023). Participants called for increased and targeted funding for programs that address the specific needs of First Nations communities. Resources should be allocated to First Nations-led initiatives, ensuring that funding is controlled by First Nations organisations rather than non-First Nations entities. This approach ensures that resources are directed in a manner that truly reflects and addresses the priorities of the community. The underfunding of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services is a major barrier to addressing the systemic racism experiences by First Nations people. This historical underfunding is a major reason why First Nations people don’t seek legal recourse for An Anti-Racism Framework: Voices of First Nations Peoples Page 51