Cameron Manning, a Tobacco Control Specialist at the Cancer Council of NSW, works with Aboriginal communities around smoking and vaping education, prevention and staff training.

A Gomeroi man from Mungindi in north-west NSW, he was born and raised on Awabakal country in Newcastle. A father of two daughters, with another child on the way in June, he is thirty-two years old.

Mr Manning has been involved in First Nations activism for the past decade and is a member of the Greens. He lives in the electorate of Dobell, a key seat, currently held by Emma McBride for Labor, who in 2022 finished roughly 7000 primary votes ahead of Liberal Michael Feneley.

Mr Manning believes the two major issues for Aboriginal people in Dobell are housing and Indigenous identity fraud, and that the housing situation has been getting progressively worse for Aboriginal people over the past two decades and has now reached bursting point.

"This is compounded by people with false and dubious claims to Aboriginal identity accessing housing through Aboriginal housing schemes" he said.

"There are also fraudulent Indigenous businesses increasingly popping up. and impacting on community opportunities for employment. Particularly sole traders who get work through government departments, including schools, winning government contracts and funding opportunities over genuine people and their own businesses.

"Often stealing Aboriginal peoples' work and intellectual property. Wow that's huge."

Mr Manning said statistically the Central Coast area is one of the largest areas of growth of Indigenous populations.

"When living here, being on the ground, you can see that its due to people self-identifying," he said.

"And they get the opportunities, whether it be housing, employment, education, scholarships, grants and funding over genuine Indigenous people from this area. It's affecting the current generation, and the community can see that it's going to affect the next generation even worse.

"Government agencies are accepting these people as Aboriginal, so it comes down to a couple of factors - the system of Indigenous identification isn't sound because it is not enforced. It's not a community-based system of identification."

Mr Manning said he was concerned that there are "too many loopholes" in higher education.

"Universities are particularly problematic in this. Anyone can sign a statutaory declaration to say they believe that are Aboriginal, self-identify, or they can get letters from friends," he said.

"There's too many loopholes in the system for frauds to exploit.

"There's people in high positions in universities that have zero community connection, zero Aboriginal bloodline. They are white people exploiting the system. This is criminal. They are becoming dictators; they are writing publications and teaching about Indigenous knowledge when they have no connection to it. It's fraudulent. They are making it up as they go along."

Mr Manning says this should not be ignored. He thinks all electors across Australia are concerned and the party that develops an approach to dealing with this, working alongside Aboriginal people, will gather many votes. Like other Aboriginal people across the country, he is waiting.

Dr Victoria Grieves Williams is Warraimaay from the midnorth coast of NSW and an historian.