Racism is a threat to the safety of First Nations people, a parliamentary hearing has heard, with witnesses saying people are "sick" of hearings and inquiries that fail to deliver tangible change.

Appearing before the Senate inquiry into racism and hate against First Peoples in Naarm on Friday, Victorian Aboriginal Child and Community Agency (VACCA) chief executive Muriel Bamblett said the intersecting forces of online racism and "inadequate" reporting and accountability mechanisms are causing "compounding and intergenerational harm for our people".

The Yorta Yorta woman said Aboriginal people continue to feel the ripple effects of the no vote in the Voice referendum.

"Our children are being bullied because [of] their culture," she said. "There's some negative story on Aboriginal culture on the TV the night before; they get it in the school grounds."

Ms Bamblett said she recounted one instance where VACCA chose not to publicly share the story of a young woman who died as a result of family violence because of fears people online would say "she deserved it".

The woman's culture was not celebrated, and her life was not memorialised, because of concerns about racist trolls, she said.

Coalition of Peaks Lead Convenor Donnella Mills told the inquiry addressing racism required "structural solutions" and pointed to the National Agreement on Closing the Gap as a framework capable of driving reform.

"What makes the national agreement most important are the four priority reforms," she said. "These provide the architecture needed to address racism by strengthening self-determination through shared decision-making, building the community-controlled sector, transforming government organisations, and improving data and accountability."

Ms Mills added: "Addressing racism requires more than responding to individual incidents; it requires structural reform, genuine partnership, and accountability."

Child removals

Victoria has the highest rate of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in out-of-home care, almost double the national average. Asked about racism in the child protection system, Ms Bamblett said stronger responses to poverty, family violence and housing were essential to reducing the rate.

"If you look at where many of the notifications come from, they happen to align very much with the most impoverished suburbs," she said.

"Have we got a response to poverty? No, we don't."

Ms Bamblett said more than 70 per cent of children coming into contact with child protection do so because of family violence.

"We also know that the numbers of unborn reports for Aboriginal women having babies are more likely to progress to the child being removed," she said. "So, do we have the services and the responses to work with young mums that are pregnant? No, we don't."

Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service (VALS) chief executive and National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services (NATSILS) Chair Nerita Waight said the impacts of racism in child protection were well known, drawing on her previous experience in the sector.

"We would have many instances where notifications were made...referring to family violence that had occurred some 10 years ago, and at times not even with the current partner, and that was enough for them to decide to remove an Aboriginal child from their family," she said.

Ms Waight told the inquiry Australia had learnt nothing from the Bringing Them Home report.

"We also know that when we talk about trying to change in this space, we often run up against, 'well, you can't be treated any differently'," she said. "The problem is that we already are treated differently. We're treated in a negative way, in a way that vilifies our families and communities."

She recalled being told as a child by a relative that "blackfellas don't win votes".

"We are always going to be treated as a political football," she recounted. "We are always going to be communities that it's okay to harm."

Commonwealth action

Ms Waight said the work to improve outcomes for children needed to happen "now".

She argued that if the Commonwealth took the safety of First Peoples seriously, "it must show that with action, not just words". This included implementing all sections of the Makarrata Commission and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP).

The Commonwealth Government has the opportunity to change this space, she said.

"You can implement legislation for the child placement principle. You can implement minimum standards for both youth justice and child protection. You have a thing called the Constitution. It gives you power. It is time to use it."

Treaty

Both Ms Waight and Ms Bamblett spoke about the benefits of Treaty, signed between the Victorian Government and an elected body of Traditional Owners last year.

"Clearly Treaty works in Victoria," Ms Bamblett told the inquiry. " I believe it has changed the landscape of Victoria. We're seeing our culture now become much more visible.

"To see our culture now being restored and language restored, and ceremonies restored...I think that's the great thing about Treaty."

Ms Waight said Treaty does what "governments have failed to do".

"It looks at communities as a whole. It looks at how to make sure that we are not breaking children up into one component or one lens, but we are seeing them as a whole," she said.

"It's about making sure that accountability doesn't stop at a parent's door or a community's door, that it goes all the way to the decision makers and above."

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