Data for change: A national approach to anti-racism data
Many experiences of racism go unreported or unseen. This report outlines a national approach to improve anti-racism data and accountability.
Summary
This report found that:
- Many experiences of racism are never reported or captured in existing systems.
- Australia does not have a consistent national approach to data on race and racism.
- It makes practical reforms to help racism become more visible and to support effective action.
Data for change: A national approach to anti-racism data
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Overview
Racism affects people across Australia, but many experiences are never formally reported, recorded or captured. Existing data is often fragmented, inconsistent or collected in different ways across sectors, making it difficult to understand the full nature of racism in Australia.
This report examines how Australia collects and uses information about race and racism and identifies key gaps that limit our understanding of the nature and impacts of racism.
This work draws on:
- consultations with communities that experience racism, including data experts, as part of the broader National Anti-Racism Framework
- analysis of existing datasets and reporting systems in Australia
- domestic and international research
The report finds that current approaches to data do not always reflect people’s racial identity and how racism operates across society. It proposes a nationally coordinated approach that embeds Indigenous self-determination, intersectionality and human rights principles and drives accountability, better decision-making and community leadership over data.
This is not about collecting more data to prove racism exists. We already know it does. We need to make inequality more visible, hold institutions to account and give communities greater agency over their data to drive real change.
Key findings
The report found:
- experiences of racism are often underreported, under-recorded or not captured at all
Australia lacks a coordinated national approach to collecting and using information about race and racism - data is fragmented across areas such as workplaces, education, media and the arts, health, the legal and justice system, housing, and online spaces, limiting understanding of the nature, extent and impact of racism
- existing systems often struggle to capture systemic and institutional forms of racism
- government data standards on cultural and linguistic diversity do not meaningfully capture racial identity and show how racism operates. Their focus on indirect measures such as country of birth or language spoken at home are also not always aligned with the right of people to self-define their own identity, within a human rights-based approach to data
- large amounts of data are collected about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, but communities do not always have meaningful control over how that data is designed, governed, interpreted, and used.
Recommendations
The scoping report makes 16 recommendations to strengthen how data on race and racism is collected, governed, reported on, and used. Many are drawn from existing recommendations in the National Anti-Racism Framework.
They include:
- Develop a National Anti-Racism Data Plan: Create a nationally coordinated approach to collecting, governing and using data on race and racism.
- Improve how Australia measures identity: Review national government data standards on cultural and linguistic diversity and ethnicity with deep community consultation. Strengthen the Australian Census and other government data collections to better reflect how people identify and experience inequality.
- Improve data on racism and reporting pathways: Better capture experiences of racism across workplaces, education, health, the legal and criminal justice systems, media and the arts, online, housingand other settings, while addressing personal and structural barriers to reporting.
- Strengthen consistency across systems: Align data collection practices across government and publicly funded services to improve data quality, comparison, analysis and accountability.
- Strengthen First Peoples' data rights and governance: Seek community advice about expanding question on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander identity and ensure data about First Peoples is governed in line with Indigenous Data Sovereignty, Indigenous Data Governance and Closing the Gap commitments.
- Support community-led data initiatives: Provide stable funding and sustained support for organisations and communities collecting data about racism and inequality.
- Improve understanding of overlapping inequalities: Ensure data captures how racism interacts with factors such as gender, class, age, disability and migration status.
- Build and bolster capability: Improve training and support so organisations and workplaces broadly can collect, use and interpret data on race and racism more effectively.