I rise to recognise the 50th Anniversary of the proclamation of the Racial Discrimination Act 1975 (the RDA) , which was introduced on 13 February 1975 by Labor's Attorney-General Kep Enderby, and came into full force on 31 October 1975, less than a fortnight before the premature end of the Whitlam Government.
That is 50 years ago tomorrow.
The proclamation of the Act followed Australia's ratification of the Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD) in September 1975, and the RDA incorporated obligations of the convention into domestic law.
The final version of the Act followed earlier attempts by then Attorney-General Lionel Murphy to introduce a Racial Discrimination Bill in the Senate, initially in November 1973, and then twice in 1974.
The passage of the Racial Discrimination Act was an historic step, for the first time making racial discrimination unlawful in Australia through Federal legislation
To put this in context, the White Australia policy had only recently been abolished by the Whitlam Government in 1973, removing race as a determining factor for immigration decisions.
As Attorney-General Enderby stated in his Second Reading speech:
"The proscribing of racial discrimination in legislative form will require legal sanctions. These will also make people more aware of the evils, the undesirable and unsociable consequences of discrimination - the hurtful consequences of discrimination - and make them more obvious and conspicuous. In this regard the Bill will perform an important educative role. In addition, the introduction of legislation will furnish legal background on which to rest changes reflecting basic community attitudes. The fact that racial discrimination is unlawful will make it easier for people to resist social pressures that result in discrimination'
The debate on the Bill was robust and included a contribution by Shadow Attorney-General Greenwood, who, speaking on the Second Reading of the Bill on 15 May 1975, recognised that 'Racial discrimination which proceeds from or which seeks to develop a superiority concept is to be deplored and avoided. A society which is plagued by the tensions of racial discrimination is likely to be a society torn by dissension and evidencing a developing instability.'
Senator Greenwood did also say however that 'We in Australia have been singularly free of racial discrimination'.
Senator Neville Bonner, the first Aboriginal Australian to become a member of this Parliament, gave a more personal contribution when speaking on the Bill on 27 May 1975.
Senator Bonner relayed a story from his own life, which is worth reflecting on. In his own words:
"I was manager of a farm. Unfortunately the company which owned it was closing down. It gave me a month's notice. During that month I scanned the newspapers because I had 7 children at school and I had to support and feed them. I was looking for another job. There were advertisements in the papers about a manager required for a farm or for a family to work a farm. I answered one of these advertisements. I took my son with me. We drove to the farm. A chap met us at the gate. He leaned over the gate and said: 'What do you chaps want?' Prior to that I had rung him and he had told me to come and look at the house and conditions, how far it would be for my children to go to school, and so on. At that time I did not tell him I was an Aborigine. I was just talking to him on the telephone. When we arrived he said: 'Yes, what do you chaps want?' I said: 'I am Neville Bonner. I spoke to you on the telephone about the job on the farm'. He said: 'I am sorry, it would not be available to you. I could not have an Aborigine working on my farm because we are supplying milk'.
As Senator Bonner concluded 'There is discrimination and we must do something about it'.
The Racial Discrimination Act created a right that had not previously existed in common law, that is, the right not to be discriminated against on the grounds of race. The Act contains both a general provision making racial discrimination unlawful under section 9, and specific protections in areas including employment, the provision of goods, housing and accommodation, and in access to public places.
The Act also prohibits indirect race discrimination where a person requires another to comply with a term, condition or requirement which is not reasonable having regard to the circumstances of the case, and the requirement to comply has the purpose or effect of nullifying or impairing the recognition, enjoyment or exercise, on an equal footing, by persons of the same race, colour, descent or national or ethnic origin as the other person, of any human right or fundamental freedom in any field of public life.
The Act also provided a template for the States and Territories to follow, all of which have enacted their own anti-discrimination laws.
For the past 50 years, the Racial Discrimination Act has provided a standard for which we can as a society aspire, where all members of our community are treated respectfully, without distinction, exclusion or preference based on race, colour, descent or national or ethnic origin
The Racial Discrimination Act also paved the way for a number of important judicial decisions, including the Mabo v Queensland (No.1) case in 1988, where the operation of the RDA, specifically section 10, which provides for rights to equality before the law, was central to the invalidation of the Queensland Coast Islands Declaratory Act 1985 which had attempted to retrospectively abolish native title rights.
The subsequent decision in Mabo (No.2) in 1992 struck down the fiction of 'terra nullius', leading to the Native Title Act a year later.
Mr Speaker, legislation itself is not enough to change cultural attitudes.
As Prime Minister Whitlam stated at a speech to mark the proclamation of the Act on 31 October 1975, "It is of course extraordinarily difficult to define racial discrimination and outlaw it by legislative means. Social attitudes and mental habits do not readily lend themselves to codification and statutory prohibitions."
But attitudes have changed, and the RDA has been an important mechanism for civil redress.
The 1995 amendments to the Act - including the racial vilification provisions of section 18C, were introduced following a number of inquiries into racist violence in Australia, and were also a recommendation of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody.
Section 18C deals with offensive behaviour because of race, colour or national or ethnic origin.
As Attorney-General Michael Lavarch noted in introducing the amendments in late 1994, 'The Racial Discrimination Act does not eliminate racist attitudes. It does not try to, for a law cannot change what people think. But it does target behaviour-behaviour that causes an individual to suffer discrimination'.
Making racial vilification unlawful didn't stop it. But it helps to create a norm of behaviour that our society believes is acceptable.
In the recent case of Wertheim v Haddad , the Federal Court found that section 18C of the RDA was contravened by reason of the delivery and publication of a lecture series which conveyed imputations about Jewish people that were reasonably likely in all the circumstances to offend, insult, humiliate or intimidate Jewish people in Australia.
Section 18C continues to stand, although there are some people in our society who want the right to be bigots enshrined in our laws. The Labor Party has always understood and defended the importance of section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act in our multicultural society.
I also acknowledge the leadership of my most excellent predecessor and colleague Mark Dreyfus KC, MP in introducing the Criminal Code Amendment (Hate Crimes) Act 2025 , which came into force in February this year, and has strengthened Australia's legislative framework to combat hate crimes, including new offences to combat threats of force or violence against a group or individual distinguished by race.
I recognise the ongoing efforts of the Australian Human Rights Commission, which for nearly 40 years has helped to give practical effect to the Racial Discrimination Act.
The Commission continues to provide education and training, including to employers, to ensure that workplaces are inclusive and respectful.
The Racism. It Stops With Me campaign which has run since 2012, and which is now being updated, has helped to build community understanding of racism in Australia, and to provide the community with the tools and skills to identify and challenge racism.
In October 2022, the Albanese Government provided $7.5 million over four years to the Commission to develop a National Anti-Racism Strategy to tackle racism and promote racial equality in Australia.
In the 5 years to 2024 the Commission received over 2,200 complaints under the RDA, which accounts for around 14% of total complaints. The majority of complaints relate to the provision of goods and services, and employment.
The Commission attempts to conciliate complaints, which aligns with the goals of the Act and avoids where possible more adversarial approaches, and allows for a flexible and open engagement with respondents to understand the impacts of their actions and to try, where possible, to reach a satisfactory resolution. In 2023-24 around 130 complaints were resolved through conciliation.
The Racial Discrimination Act also serves a strong educative purpose. It reflects the values of our society- that we will not accept racial discrimination and we believe that all members of our community deserve to be treated with dignity and respect.
Education doesn't just rest with the Human Rights Commission. It rests with all of us.
To again quote Attorney-General Enderby:
"The Bill recognises the importance of developing programs of education and research and other programs to combat racial discrimination and to promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among racial and ethnic groups... The changing of community attitudes is a matter of vital significance in the field of race relations. Both governmental and community-based programs to combat racial discrimination are necessary."
I recognise the many community organisations who have supported, and continue to support, the journey to combat racial discrimination in Australia.
In my electorate of Greenway in Western Sydney there are many groups that work tirelessly to support and build community cohesion-organisations like SydWest multicultural services. For 40 years they have been supporting our diverse Western Sydney community by helping people of all backgrounds improve their lives, providing services including settlement, aged and disability care and programs for youth, women and families.
The Scanlon Institute is another important organisation which has been researching social cohesion in Australia for more than a decade. The Institute's 2025 mapping social cohesion survey found that 'The strength of support for multiculturalism and diversity that has accumulated in Australia over years and decades is a potentially important resource in guarding against deeper divisions over immigration and greater threats to social cohesion'.
Mr Speaker, racism remains an issue shaping Australian society and our social cohesion, with recent evidence including the targeting of Indian Australians and the experiences of our Muslim and Jewish communities, which has included acts of both anti-Muslim and antisemitic hatred and violence in recent years.
I acknowledge the efforts of the Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism Ms Jillian Segal, and the Special Envoy to Combat Islamophobia, Mr Aftab Malik for their work and advice to the government on ways to strengthen social cohesion for all Australians.
As the Scanlon Institute has noted ' in the current climate, the relative stability of many of our measures of social cohesion speaks to the enduring strength of the social fabric of communities across Australia. The bonds we form with people in our daily lives and in neighbourhoods and local communities provides the foundation for our social cohesion and collective wellbeing. While not unbreakable and often tested by current events, these bonds are not so easily broken and help weather and safeguard social cohesion through challenging times.'
In conclusion I will again quote Prime Minister Whitlam from his statement on the proclamation of the Racial Discrimination Act.
'The purpose of the Racial Discrimination Act is... to set standards for the future, and build a climate of maturity, of goodwill, of co-operation and understanding at all levels of society'.
I believe that this goodwill in our community in supporting the ongoing operation of the Racial Discrimination Act, and combatting racism in all its forms remains today, and I thank members for their support for this statement.
