Anti-racism framework
In March 2021, the Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) released a proposal for a National Anti-Racism Framework in response to enduring community calls for national action after heightened experiences of racism and racial inequality in recent years. The proposal was intended to begin a national conversation about anti-racism action.
From March 2021 to April 2022, the AHRC led consultations on the scope and vision for a Framework. In our submission, ANTAR included three key areas we believe should be fundamental to a National Anti Racism Framework, including:
- Comprehensive public education that addresses racism;
- Addressing systemic or institutional racism that perpetuates structural prejudices;
- Ensuring protections are in place for individuals and also suitable and safe avenues of recourse where people suffer racism.
The submission also noted that anti-racism principles from a First Nations perspective include:
- Education / Truth-Telling – to address the misinformation that has been shared throughout history and which has had an inter-generational impact on the experience of racial discrimination by First Nations communities.
- Inclusion – of First Nations voices, experiences and knowledge on matters that affect them at all levels to ensure that they are represented and provided with equal opportunity to have their say.
- Right to self-determination – to live a life that is equal to others and free from racial discrimination (i.e. access to healthcare, education, employment).
In 2022, the AHRC released its Scoping Report for a National Anti-Racism Framework. The report provides an initial evidence-based summary of what the Commission heard during consultations on the scope and vision for a Framework.
In 2023, the Australian Government committed dedicated funding to a National Anti-Racism Strategy to be used by AHRC to amplify and progress the scoping report’s findings, as well as to conduct further targeted scoping consultations in 2023. On October 20 2023, the minister for multicultural affairs, Andrew Giles, told Guardian Australia’s politics podcast that the Albanese government would expedite a new national racism strategy after the defeat of the Voice Referendum.
On 26 November 2024, the AHRC launched the national anti-racism framework setting out 63 recommendations for the government to implement that aim to end racism.
In Australia, the refusal to name and confront racism has prevented meaningful progress on eliminating it.
AHRC
What is anti-racism?
Nilmini Fernando, a racial literary scholar and educator, explains that anti-racism is a practice that goes beyond individual actions and attitudes. Being anti-racist means addressing racism in “your practices, your procedures, your policies, the way you do things, how you put your communications out to the world”. Fernando explains,
Race is about exploitation. Race is about putting somebody down. Race is about creating those ladders of upper and lower. It’s an active thing.