This opinion piece by Race Discrimination Commissioner Giridharan Sivaraman was published by The Mandarin on 15 August 2025
The government's first-ever Economic Reform Roundtable will focus on lifting living standards for Australians by boosting productivity, economic resilience and budget sustainability. Yet one key barrier hasn't been brought to the table for discussion: racism.
The starting point is understanding the need for employers to change their workplace policies and practices rather than forcing employees to diminish themselves. Or put another way, employers changing their policies and practices to get the best out of their employees.
Just as employers can make adjustments that allow employees with disability or parents taking care of children to fully participate in the workforce, they can also tackle racist barriers.
To help set the scene, let's consider the experience of Fatima, a successful architect in Syria. She speaks some English, is a devout Muslim and wears a hijab. Despite coming to Australia on a skilled migration visa, her qualifications aren't recognised, and the validation process is costly and unclear.
With no income support, she takes a warehouse job. There is no safe space to pray, so she uses the bathroom. When she writes her name in Arabic on a whiteboard while explaining her culture, HR warns her it made others uncomfortable. Ramadan coincides with a busy period, and she's asked to work longer hours, which consistently delays the breaking of her fast and exacerbates fatigue. She requests leave to celebrate the Islamic holiday Eid but is told she must take annual leave, which she hasn't accrued.
Fatima applies for promotions but is told she lacks the 'cultural fit'. Finally, feeling isolated and unvalued, she quits. In her exit interview, no one asks if she experienced racism.
Despite not being subjected to racial, cultural or religious slurs, Fatima experienced racism at every step of her employment journey.
While being a composite character, Fatima's story reflects the experiences of countless people across Australia. Extensive community consultations conducted over the last three years by the Australian Human Rights Commission have revealed how deeply embedded racism is in Australia, as well as its pervasiveness in workplaces.
Racism occurs at every stage of employment. It affects who is recruited, whether their overseas skills are recognised, whether they must sit English proficiency tests, the level at which they are recruited, whether they are safe at work, how they progress through positions, and whether they are chosen to be leaders.
Due to poor data collection and narrow perceptions of racism, we don't know the full extent of its impact in workplaces. However, research by the Diversity Council Australia found that employees who feel excluded at work are five times less likely to be satisfied by their job, three times more likely to feel that their mental health is negatively impacted by their work and 3.5 times more likely to leave their workplace.
Researchers estimate Australia loses more than 3% of its GDP annually because of racial discrimination - which translates to around $37 billion per annum in terms of the total economy. In contrast, McKinsey & Company has found that diversity in leadership and executive teams continue to show an increased likelihood of above-average profitability, growth ambitions, social impact, and workplace satisfaction.
In November 2024, the commission released the National Anti-Racism Framework containing 63 recommendations for a whole-of-society approach to eliminating racism in Australia. Twelve of these recommendations are specific to workplaces and strongly align with the key roundtable agenda item of 'building a skilled and adaptable workforce'.
The framework recommends creating internal workplace anti-racism strategies, behavioural codes of conduct, national standards for reporting racism in workplaces, and strategies to recruit and retain staff from diverse backgrounds, especially in leadership and senior roles.
While DEI policies might get diverse staff in the door, they do not necessarily protect them from the racism they may face within the workplace. This is why the framework also recommends mandatory cultural safety and anti-racism training to ensure there are policies, practices and cultures in workplaces which allow all employees to feel respected, valued and safe.
The framework also suggests the inclusion of a 'positive duty' within the Racial Discrimination Act to eliminate racial discrimination by employers and in the provision of goods and services. A positive duty requires proactive, evidence-based measures to be implemented to prevent racism from happening in the first place, so that those who experience the harms of racism no longer carry the additional burden of being responsible for addressing it.
In his recent address to the National Press Club, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese asserted his intention to "deliver reforms that hold no one back and drive progress that leaves no one behind". To truly reach this vision, anti-racism must be embedded into the plans for economic reform through investing in anti-racism training, embedding cultural safety in workplace standards, and holding organisations accountable for inclusive practices.
If the aim of the roundtable is to develop strategies for a more dynamic and resilient economy, then the reform agenda must include a commitment to addressing racism in workplaces so we can harness the significant economic benefits that will flow from all of us enjoying equal rights and opportunities, and fully and meaningfully participating in society.
Giridharan Sivaraman is Australia's Race Discrimination Commissioner
