Australian Race Discrimination Commissioner calls out festering hatred

The Australian

3 days ago

Skilled migrants are hitting barriers in every aspect of their lives in Australia, the Race Discrimination Commissioner says.
Speaking in Canberra on Wednesday, Giridharan Sivaraman said systemic and structural racism was limiting Australia's economic output and quality of life.
'Structural racism goes beyond racist slurs or harassment, though these are harmful enough,' he said at the National Press Club.
'Just as sexism isn't just about individual men treating women badly, racism isn't just about personal prejudice. It's the way our laws, policies, institutions, and entrenched norms consistently produce worse outcomes for people based on their race.'
Efforts to address systemic racism could follow other anti-discrimination reform, Mr Sivaraman said.
Giridharan Sivaraman says there are clear steps which can be taken to address systemic racism in Australia. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman
'When employers could fire women for falling pregnant, we didn't just shrug and accept it,' Mr Sivaraman said.
'Women, unions and allies advocated and we changed the law … That sense of justice you felt when fighting for equality, for what's right – that's exactly what we must supply to structural racism.'
Mr Sivaraman's speech traversed the ongoing racism and dehumanisation felt by First Nations people, the difficulties migrants faced settling into modern Australia, and the effects of the war in Gaza on communities here.
'The war in Gaza has triggered a terrifying surge of anti-Semitism, anti-Palestinian racism, anti-Arab racism and Islamophobic hate,' he said.
'Mentioning those different forms of racism doesn't mean equating them. Mentioning one doesn't invalidate another.'
The Race Discrimination Commissioner's speech touched on broad facets of Australian society, including racism, sexism, multiculturalism and identity. Picture: NewsWire / Glenn Campbell
Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim Australians were dehumanised by the Israeli-caused devastation in Gaza, he said.
'When the massacre of 1200 Jews and Israelis by Hamas on October 7 is not acknowledged, it dehumanises them. By extension, Jewish and Israeli Australians,' Mr Sivaraman said.
International conflicts affected Australians for varying reasons, he said.
'Of course we don't want conflict here, but we can't distance ourselves from the inhumanity that occurs, wherever it is occurring, overseas,' Mr Sivaraman said.
Communities here were deeply impacted by what was happening overseas in many different ways, he said.
'Sometimes it's because their families, friends and relatives have been killed or hurt,' Mr Sivaraman said.
'Or it's because they can identify with the people that are being killed or hurt.'
Mr Sivaraman told an anecdote of a couple who moved to Australia on skilled migrant visas but whose qualifications were not recognised and their workplace interactions were layered in idioms.
These skilled migrants were forced to take jobs that did not make full use of their skills, there was nowhere for them to pray, and they were shut out from advancing up the hierarchy into leadership positions.
In November, the Australian Human Rights Commission released a National Anti-Racism Framework. The road map has 63 recommendations across the legal, justice, health, education, media and arts sectors.
'We are talking about solutions that actually benefit everyone. They benefit everyone in terms of the general happiness and wellbeing of the society,' Mr Sivaraman said.
'They will benefit in terms of the economic impacts.'
Mr Sivaraman called on Prime Minster Anthony Albanese to publicly support, and fund, the recommendations.
Blair Jackson
Reporter
Blair's journalism career has taken him from Perth, to New Zealand, Queensland and now Melbourne.
Blair Jackson