This opinion piece by Race Discrimination Commissioner Giridharan Sivaraman appeared in The Canberra Times on 11 June 2025
Time is the marker of everything.
In a civic context, we use time to understand what policies, actions, and even words have changed our lives - for the better or worse, or not at all.
This helps us find ways to make our futures safer, healthier, and more just.
I want to find a way to a future free of racism. And, at this point in time, I can't help but think of the words of two Prime Ministers - in speeches delivered half a century apart.
First, let's go back to this week in June 1975, when Australia enacted the Racial Discrimination Act (RDA). With the White Australia Policy only recently abolished, this was a landmark moment in our history. It was the first Commonwealth law that focused on human rights and discrimination, setting a new vision for Australian society that sought to shake off the racial segregation that had defined it.
In a speech at the RDA's proclamation, then Prime Minister Gough Whitlam said our nation must "spell out in enduring form … the principle that all Australians, whatever their colour, race or creed, are equal before the law and have the same basic rights and opportunities."
But has Whitlam's aspiration to "entrench new attitudes … in people's hearts and minds" been realised?
The answer is yes and no. A legislative framework around racial equality has helped shine a spotlight on employers in workplace discrimination cases, provided remedy pathways for people who've experienced racial hatred, even invalidate laws that discriminated against First Nations peoples, such as the famous case of Mabo v Queensland. It also set a precedent for similar anti-discrimination laws around age, sex, and disability that were passed in the years that followed.
Over the past 50 years, we have seen monumental progress in our society, and its shape has changed significantly. These are achievements to remember, to celebrate.
But, sadly, racism remains entrenched in many parts of our society. Systems and institutions designed to serve us all are still infected by racist attitudes and practices in place well before the RDA's inception.
Racism continues to affect everyday life. People are confronted with it through verbal attacks or left isolated by policies or practices that disadvantage them. This includes people with "foreign sounding" names being less likely to be selected for a job interview or having their work more scrutinised than colleagues; over-policing in some communities; and cultural biases within the medical system that can prevent people of colour receiving the same standards of care as everyone else. First Nations people still suffer the fundamental racism of a denial of self-determination. This has consistently been confirmed by consultation, research, and work led by advocacy groups. The work of the Australian Human Rights Commission confirms it too.
There is no doubt that urgent reform is needed. And, half a century since Whitlam's address, a speech by another Prime Minister - our current one - touched on what I believe will help drive the solution.
In his election victory speech last month, Anthony Albanese spoke of what he believed were the Australian values the majority of people had voted for.
"For the strength," he said, "to show courage in adversity and kindness to those in need".
Courage and kindness. For me, this has always been at the heart of who are - or who we should aspire to be.
Reform takes courage. It takes kindness. Changing systems and institutions to eliminate racism requires our leaders to take courage.
In November last year, I released the National Anti-Racism Framework, a roadmap for widespread government-led reform to defeat racism in ten years. Its 63 recommendations take a whole of society approach to eliminating racism, across our legal, justice, health, education, media and arts sectors as well as for businesses.
Courage and kindness could manifest in action by the Government supporting these recommendations. This would see the principles of the RDA truly realised.
But after 50 years, the RDA also needs an update. One of the Framework's proposed changes is introducing a legal responsibility on employers to proactively prevent racism in the workplace. Similar to the Positive Duty under the Sex Discrimination Act, it means taking reasonable steps to eliminate racism, rather than only reacting once a complaint is made.
Kindness is recognising privilege and the advantages bestowed by race. It means having difficult, but respectful conversations, listening to uncomfortable truths without defensiveness, and finding ways to move forward together. Kindness is one of the greatest examples of strength one could show.
In 50 years' time, when people look back at this moment, I hope it's seen as another landmark moment when we made an active commitment to implementing the Framework to eliminate racism. The moment our leaders and community had the courage to choose dignity, respect and fairness - to ensure we are all truly equal with the same rights and opportunities.
Giridharan Sivaraman is Australia's Race Discrimination Commissioner.
