Settlement Services International
A Sydney mayor's derailing of an anti-racism campaign highlights the need for a coordinated national response to racism in Australia, according to Australia's largest refugee and migration resettlement support provider, Settlement Services International (SSI).
Mayor Steve Christou cast the deciding vote last week against a campaign that would have funded bilingual 'Racism Not Welcome Here' signs in the Cumberland Council area. The timing coincided with Race Discrimination Commissioner Chin Tan's proposal for a new anti-racism framework that would create a national, standardised approach to address racist attitudes in the Australian community.
SSI CEO Violet Roumeliotis said the proposed framework met a pressing community need – which made it doubly disappointing to see locally-driven initiatives such as the Cumberland Council proposal shut down.
"Efforts to support social cohesion must go beyond positive promotion of multiculturalism and actively denounce racism. Racism poses a significant social and economic threat to our country. We only have to look to the US to see it is a potential security threat too," she said.
Last week, a gunman killed eight people in Atlanta, including six people of Asian background. The deaths have sparked protests in the US, where
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