CANBERRA, March 5 (Xinhua) -- The Australian government on Thursday announced a new inquiry into racism against Indigenous people following an alleged attempted terror attack in January.
Minister for Indigenous Australians Malarndirri McCarthy said in a statement that an existing parliamentary committee on Indigenous affairs has accepted her request to conduct an inquiry into racism, hate and violence directed at Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
She said that the inquiry comes at an important time following the alleged terror attack in Western Australia (WA) and a reported increase in racism against Indigenous Australians.
A 32-year-old man from WA became the first person in the state's history to be charged with engaging in a terrorist act after he allegedly threw a homemade explosive device into a crowd of thousands of people who had gathered in the city of Perth for a protest led by Indigenous Australians on Jan. 26.
The device did not detonate, but authorities said the incident could have been a mass casualty event and that the attack was motivated by racist and hateful ideology.
McCarthy said that Indigenous Australians are feeling scared and angry in the wake of the Perth incident and a separate August 2025 attack by white supremacists on an Indigenous protest camp in Melbourne.
The inquiry will hand down a report by mid-September. ■
