Former senior ACT public servant calls for inquiry into treatment of First Nations staff
In short:
The former head of the ACT Office of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs is calling for an inquiry into the treatment and safety of First Nations staff in the territory's public service.
Brendan Moyle says issues of discrimination, racism and the lack of cultural safety for Indigenous staff raised throughout his two-and-a-half-year tenure were not properly addressed.
The ACT Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs says the government treats concerns about cultural safety, workplace discrimination, and psychosocial wellbeing of its staff "with the highest level of seriousness".
In August 2025, Brendan Moyle "slumped over" at his desk.
"I thought I was having a heart attack … my own sense of mortality flashed before my eyes,"he said.
"I thought of my kids. I thought of the people I loved. I thought about the load I was carrying, and whether I could continue to carry it."
His colleagues rushed to call an ambulance, the diagnosis eventually being one of extreme anxiety.
The Kamilaroi/Gomeroi man was two years into his leadership of the ACT Office of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs (OATSIA), a time during which he documented a chronic lack of cultural safety and excessive cultural load across the ACT public service.
Cultural load is the invisible workload placed on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to provide knowledge, education and support to those around them on First Nations issues, including racism or discrimination.
Multiple reviews and reports have found policy failure and systemic racism across the ACT's agencies and directorates. (ABC News: Dave Sciasci)
Mr Moyle said the Community Services Directorate — one of the main arms of the ACT public service (ACTPS) — "willingly and knowingly" ignored or dismissed his warnings that Indigenous employees' mental health was at risk.
"Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander staff were presenting to me reporting suicidal ideations, that were showing signs of extreme high stress,"he said.
Internal government documents from November 2023 show the directorate's Indigenous staff felt "broken" and "exhausted" by their workplace within "a system … designed to fracture and destroy the spirit".
But Mr Moyle said despite the alarm being raised, workplace culture only deteriorated, having a significant impact on the welfare of Indigenous staff — including himself.
Mr Moyle resigned from the Office of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs in November 2025 following the health scare.
"Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people die earlier than non-Indigenous people, and I was worried that I was going to be one of those statistics," he said.
"I could no longer sit back and beg for the most basic of things that have already been committed."
In a statement, ACT Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs, Suzanne Orr, said the government treated concerns about cultural safety, workplace discrimination, and psychosocial wellbeing of its staff "with the highest level of seriousness".
"We recognise that cultural load, unsafe environments and discriminatory behaviours can impact Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander staff,"Ms Orr said.
"These matters contribute to our understanding of where improvements are needed and will continue to inform both current reforms and future cultural safety work across the ACT government.
"As minister, I want to stress that the government is committed to addressing these issues and to strengthening cultural safety across the ACTPS. There is a significant whole-of-ACTPS work program currently being undertaken to embed cultural safety across the ACTPS."
Brendan Moyle says he was initially drawn to work in the ACT by its reputation for being a leader in furthering social justice. (ABC News: Matt Roberts)
Documents reveal persistent attempts to address staff safety
When Mr Moyle took on the role in February 2023, he said he felt a strong sense of optimism about what could be achieved in Canberra.
"That's what first drew me back to the ACT — thinking and believing that the ACT as a jurisdiction was strong in terms of social justice context," he said.
"What I found was ongoing dismissal, not just of me, but of a number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people."
Brendan Moyle says he and his team received little or no response to their ongoing raising of concerns, resulting in serious workplace health and safety risks. (ABC News: Stuart Carnegie)
The deterioration of workplace culture and inadequate resources in the ACT public service are documented in an extensive trove of internal communications, obtained via freedom of information (FOI) requests by Independent MLA Thomas Emerson, which have now been made public.
The documented concerns are concentrated in the Community Services Directorate, the agency largely responsible for improving the outcomes of the ACT's Indigenous population of around 9,500.
Emails, briefs, memos and other internal documents show Mr Moyle's and the OATSIA's attempts to address the safety of staff.
"There was nothing. There was no support. There was no intensive support as was committed [to]," Mr Moyle.
Government accused of not meeting its own commitments
Mr Moyle is unequivocal about why working conditions for Indigenous employees have become so marginalised.
"At the crux of it all is a lack of accountability,"he said.
"These are requirements that were agreed and tabled in the Legislative Assembly. These are directorate policies and commitments given.
"And people can just choose to ignore it, and choose to not just ignore it, but operate completely contrary to it."
The requirements Mr Moyle talks about are commitments in the ACT Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Agreement 2019-28, which were signed off by the ACT government.
A key principle of the agreement is "a self-determined and inclusive society where Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are valued, respected, and experience a life free of racism and systemic discrimination".
In December, the ACT also became the first in the country to commit senior public servants to demonstrate how they are working towards ending the inequality experienced by First Nations people.
In July new legislation will require senior executives in the ACT public service to promote cultural safety for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. (Unsplash: Israel Andrade)
Among the starkest documents in the FOI tranche is a multi-page brief Mr Moyle wrote to the Community Services Directorate in September 2025, two months before he resigned.
"Cultural knowledge and technical advice and expertise is often diminished and ignored," Mr Moyle said in the brief.
"We have made various requests over and over and over again with little to no resolution."
At the same time, Mr Moyle noted that OATSIA was "the dumping ground for many requests that relate to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people but should be the responsibility of other business areas".
Mr Moyle also said that he and his team received little or no response to their ongoing raising of concerns.
"The history of raising these issues includes no response provided, no action," he said.
In some cases, he said there were "conversations", "but there is no follow-up, and no inclusion of the staff impacted".
Mr Moyle said the result was serious workplace health and safety risks.
"There are increasing reports of physical, mental and psychosocial stress being reported by OATSIA staff through various forums," he said.
Mr Moyle added that ACT government ministers were likely to have been blindsided by what was really going on within the bureaucracy.
"Unfortunately, I don't think that the ministers are always fully aware of what's actually going on. They're reliant on the briefing packs," he said.
"Some of the ministers that I've had exposure to in the ACT were some of the best ministers that I'd ever had the pleasure of working with, but ministers are only as good and as effective as those people who are advising them.
"There are amazing leaders within the public service … true allies, but the problem is that quite often there are still too many people in the system who willingly choose to not even do their jobs."
In a statement to the ABC, a Health and Community Services Directorate spokesperson said concerns regarding cultural safety, discrimination and cultural load for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander staff that were set out in briefs to senior executives were "considered carefully".
They said the directorate was not aware of any briefs that were intentionally wrong or misleading.
"A number of actions were taken to address cultural safety issues," the spokesperson said.
"In the second half of 2025, targeted actions were developed with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander staff in the directorate. Some initiatives required longer-term organisational and structural change, and work in this area has continued over time."
In response to Mr Moyle's allegations of work health and safety risks, the spokesperson said the directorate would cooperate fully with any potential investigation by WorkSafe ACT "and undertake its own internal review to strengthen safety controls" if an investigation occurred.
The directorate also made clear that it was not aware of any misconduct regarding public servants working against government policy, ignoring directions, cabinet decisions or failing to carry out duties against ACT and Commonwealth agreements.
"If anyone believes any misconduct has occurred this should be reported to the ACT Public Sector Standards Commissioner," the spokesperson said.
Recent staff survey highlights ongoing problems
According to a September 2025 survey, 41 per cent of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employees of the ACTPS did not feel culturally safe in the workplace. (ABC News: Dave Sciasci)
Mr Moyle's allegations and the FOI releases come just after a survey of the ACT public service was made public. It also paints a very concerning picture of the treatment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the workplace.
The September 2025 survey had over 13,000 respondents, and for the first time contained questions about systemic racism in the ACT public service.
According to the survey, 41 per cent of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employees said they did not feel culturally safe in the workplace, and 14 per cent had personally experienced at least one form of discrimination at work in the previous 12 months.
Public Service Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith told the ACT Legislative Assembly earlier this year that while the results of the survey were "very distressing", they were "in line with some of the feedback that we have received in terms of the work that needs to be done to improve cultural safety".
Mr Moyle said he wanted to see some change and greater accountability.
"I actually think there needs to be a board of inquiry into the ongoing treatment of Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander people and cultural safety within the ACT Public Service,"he said.
"I'm not trying to undermine the great work that is currently underway, but there needs to be a level of public accountability … because that's what those systems were created for."
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