STATEMENT FROM THOMAS EMERSON MLA, INDEPENDENT MEMBER FOR KURRAJONG

I thank the Ombudsman for his work on this long-awaited report, while noting the full internal police investigation still hasn’t been finalised more than nine months after an innocent Aboriginal boy was pulled from a bus at gunpoint last November.

Unlawfully searching a terrified teenage boy even after realising he was not the suspect is appalling, and compounds the trauma this boy will carry for the rest of his life. It raises serious questions about accepted practices within ACT Policing that this search was considered appropriate by officers on the scene. What was the purpose, motive, and justification for searching an Aboriginal boy they knew was not their suspect? 

I welcome the Ombudsman’s finding that the search was unlawful and the AFP Professional Standards Unit’s finding that it was a serious breach of the AFP Code of Conduct.

The initial defensive response to this incident by both the Chief Police Officer and the Minister for Police further degraded the relationship between ACT Policing and the First Nations community. 

The Chief Police Officer defending officers’ actions ahead of launching an investigation into them didn’t exactly instil confidence in the investigation process. His assurance at the time that the police force didn’t have a problem with institutional racism is hard to square with the Ombudsman’s finding that they don’t even have an operational definition for racial profiling.

I get the impulse to protect your own in the face of significant public scrutiny. Police officers work in a high-pressure, high-risk environment, but that can’t be used as an excuse for conduct that harms the people they’re responsible for protecting.

The crucial role our police force plays in keeping our community safe, and their power to use force in doing so, means they should be held to an even higher standard – not given extra leniency.

These findings need to mark a turning point for ACT Policing’s engagement with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Canberrans.

The obvious lack of cultural competency demonstrated in how the boy was treated after officers realised their mistake shows ACT Policing has a long way to go.

ACT Policing can start rebuilding community trust by demonstrating a firm commitment to holding itself and its officers to account. 

END STATEMENT

BACKGROUND

On 20 November 2025, Mr Emerson stood with the family of the boy and First Nations community leaders in calling for an independent investigation into the incident with public findings.

Mr Emerson and other Members of the Legislative Assembly questioned the Chief Police Officer and the Police Minister about the incident in a public committee hearing on 20 November 2025. See the transcript here.

The Ombudsman’s report It’s not him is available here and his media release is here.

The AFP has also issued a media release on the progress of its concurrent Professional Standards Unit investigations into the matter here.