Canberra's minority communities are increasingly dealing with "awful" social media comments, verbal abuse and offensive paraphernalia, as the number of racism complaints made to the ACT government rises.
The ACT Human Rights Commission has reported an increase in the number of racial vilification and discrimination complaints, receiving more than 90 reports in 2025-26 compared to 75 the previous financial year.
Commissioner Karen Toohey said current social narratives about minority communities in Australia, particularly Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and Indian immigrants, were enabling racist behaviour.
