“I don't think that there is any problem with the policy settings, with the values that they reflect with their direction. But I do think that they are being swamped and overtaken…by a range of other influences and dynamics. You know, it's, it's, so it's gotten to the point where you think policy is not really going to, you know…what can you do with policy? Right? Yep, you have a great policy, we do have really strong policies… But I think that any policy would struggle to withstand the onslaught that we're experiencing now. So, despite all those policies, we are seeing increased polarisation, we have seen a surge in hate-based speech, more hate-based speech and incidents, rather than hate-based crimes, the caveat there being massive underreporting of hate-based crimes. So we, you know, I would be one of those people who would say, well, we can't really talk about whether hate-based crime is rising or falling, because we have such a poor evidence base for it, because of underreporting, that we're just not going to be able to, you know, really effectively gauge it till we have a good reporting system, which is a national, nationally consistent one.”18 The Online Safety Act 2021 (Cth) provides a step forward in addressing online racism and the funding of Reconciliation Australia are good examples of funding to the community sector leading to practical and useful outcomes. Projects led by All Together Now and the Scanlon Institute, and the University of Western Sydney Challenging Racism, as well as the Australian Reconciliation Barometer project provide examples of evidence-based work undertaken in the community sector. 19 Lack of leadership A lack of concerted leadership at the political and bureaucratic levels was a concern across the stakeholders interviewed. Political leadership is discussed below. Issues regarding leadership across the Australian public service (APS) were identified at two levels: • the lack of senior executive (SES) level staff in the APS with lived experience who can drive anti-racism work, and • the lack of a strategic, national direction on addressing racism. ‘We’re very dependent on allies in the government system – people who experience racism themselves or white allies.’20 18 Federal stakeholder interview (Departmental) 19 Journal of Australian Indigenous Issues Vol 22 | Issue 3-4(2019) Dhirodkar, S, Bias against Indigenous Australians: Implicit association test results for Australia, accessed 22 February 2024 20 Federal stakeholder interview (Community) 14