One Victorian participant stressed that while existing online reporting tools were important there is room for improvement - for example, the VEOHRC community reporting tool: ‘…needs to be much stronger so that there are better partnerships with community groups and local government to host and to own the reporting tools in a way that is decentralised.’74 A further suggestion was that greater investment in this area could serve to enable local councils and other bodies to also host such tools and use them to enter information themselves. Other identified opportunities included: • addressing racism that occurs on public transport, and • the introduction of legislation at the local government level to create a ‘mandate for change.’75 There was a general view across all interview participants that there should be consistency across local government on the responsibility of councils to address racism, and that this should be compulsory. 4.4 First Nations It was very difficult engaging First Nations people, who were unwilling to participate in government research in the weeks and months following the Voice Referendum on 14 October 2023. This limited the research team’s ability to gain insights from a broad group of key stakeholders. The team was able to gather insights from a small group of First Nations stakeholders about what is being done and what is needed in the antiracism space. The most recent 2022 Australian Reconciliation Barometer reports that 60 percent of First Nations people have experienced at least one form of racial prejudice in the previous six months compared to 50 percent in 2020 and 43 percent in 2018.76 The general impression provided by those interviewed is that there is little action being undertaken specifically to assist First Nations people experiencing racism. Where examples do exist, they are the result of the work of First Nations community-controlled organisations. The 2019 National Agreement on Closing the Gap was identified as an important instrument that has the potential to help drive future reform in the space. In 74 Victorian stakeholder 75 NSW stakeholder. 76 Reconciliation Australia (2023) 2022 Australian Reconciliation Barometer, page 5 43