Race hate and the RDA
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For more information on Racism. It Stops With Me and how to get involved, see https://itstopswithme.humanrights.gov.au/
In our game
we support each other
on the field
and off it.
So if you witness racist behaviour
take a stand
say "No"
and call it out.
Racism.
Racism.
Racism.
It Stops With Me.
[ends]
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Good morning and thank you for your warm introduction.
I would like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which we meet – the Gadigal people of the Eora nation and their elders past and present.
Introduction
Graduands, my warmest congratulations. It may be Friday the 13th, but this is clearly an auspicious day. I am honoured to be celebrating this occasion with you.
It gives me special pleasure to be with you as an alumnus of the Department. There is a special bond among Sydney’s graduates of Government and International Relations. Few understand what it’s like to be educated in the corridors of Merewether when you had expected to be here in the glorious Quad. You have all survived your encounter with brutal utilitarianism.
This report documents the activities conducted to mark the 40th anniversary of the Racial Discrimination Act 1975 (Cth). It is primarily based on a series of public consultations led by the Race Discrimination Commissioner, though it also draws upon some of the research presented at a conference held in February 2015.
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This page was first created in August, 2015
I’d like to begin by acknowledging the Darug people, the traditional owners of the land on which we meet and pay my respects to elders past and present. I also acknowledge the fine work of the University of Western Sydney, particularly Dr Sev Ozdowski, in putting together this conference. It’s most timely; it concerns a very important national conversation that we should be having right now.
In October 1975, at a ceremony for the proclamation of the Racial Discrimination Act, then Prime Minister Gough Whitlam described the legislation as ‘a historic measure’, which aimed to ‘entrench new attitudes of tolerance and understanding in the hearts and minds of the people’.(1) The Act was Australia’s first federal human rights and discrimination law. Enacted shortly after the formal abandonment of the White Australia policy, it was also a legislative expression of a new commitment to multiculturalism.
The National Anti-Racism Strategy was developed to help people to understand what racism is and why it is a problem. And it was about empowering people to prevent racism from happening and to reduce it in their communities. Almost three years on from its launch in August 2012, we can report on the Strategy’s success. But we do so in the knowledge that more remains to be done.