A Northern Territory politician says he believes racism is worsening in Darwin after a string of recent interactions left him feeling angry and unwanted. The independent member for Mulka and Yolngu man says he’s had similar experiences in Katherine and wants to speak out about the issue.
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00:00Independent politician Yingya Ghulia expected refuelling a rental car at a service station
00:08to be a simple process.
00:10Instead, he says he was blocked off from using the Bowser and a staff member asked for his
00:15ID.
00:16That really teased me off.
00:17I said this is not a question that I should be answering.
00:22The young man says it's not the first time he's been treated differently because of his
00:26race in Darwin and that he believes racism is getting worse.
00:30People just look at you by the colour of your skin or the race you're from and they just
00:36treat you as one of them.
00:38It is getting worse and even worse than ever before in Darwin.
00:43For Australia's Race Discrimination Commissioner, reports of racism against First Nations people
00:48are unsurprising, even if they're from a member of parliament.
00:53Racism has really detrimental outcomes on First Nations people.
00:57It means that they have worse health outcomes, poorer educational outcomes, they're over-represented
01:03in the justice system.
01:05Some Larrakia traditional owners here in Darwin say they're unsurprised by Mr Ghulia's experiences
01:10of racism, suggesting it's become worse since Australia voted no to an Indigenous voice
01:16to parliament.
01:17The voice process unfortunately inflicted terrible racism on First Nations people and
01:21the fact that it failed as a referendum almost gave people the sense of a licence to just
01:28openly be racist.
01:30The Northern Territory Government has declined to comment and the petrol station involved
01:35has also been contacted for a response.
01:38Mr Ghulia says he's determined to push for change.