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Commentary on: Racial Discrimination Act 1975 »
Prof Andrew Jakubowicz.
Text Commentary
Combating racism...
1975 - An important statement that discrimination will not be tolerated in Australia
Given Australia’s inheritance of racial exclusion, when governments began to change policies which discriminated against ethnic groups or Indigenous people, they also had to promote anti-racist values. One major campaign directed by the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission at high school students, was “Difrnt Colours, One People” (1992), which stressed the value of differences and how people could work together no matter what their background.
These sorts of campaigns had their roots in the Racial Discrimination Act, a law passed by the Commonwealth Parliament in 1975. The Racial Discrimination Act aims to ensure that all people are treated equally. It is a powerful and important statement that racial discrimination will not be tolerated in Australian society.
The RDA protects the rights of people who may be discriminated against because of their race, colour, descent, or national or ethnic origin. The RDA makes racial discrimination unlawful in most day-to-day living, including:
- employment,
- accommodation,
- access to places and facilities, and
- the supply of goods and services.
The background to the Act can be found in the mid 1960s when the United Nations drafted and adopted a Convention to Eliminate all forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD). Australia became a signatory to this Convention in 1966. This convention required individual governments to take action which would prohibit discrimination on the basis of race, and the adoption of CERD provided the impetus for Australia to undertake domestic and legislative policy reforms. It was this convention that played an important role in the first dismantling of the White Australia policy controls. However it was not until 1973 that the Convention was put into domestic legislation, as the Racial Discrimination Bill.
The Convention defines the term "racial discrimination" to mean any distinction, exclusion, restriction or preference based on race, colour, descent, or national or ethnic origin which has the purpose or effect of nullifying or impairing the recognition, enjoyment or exercise, on an equal footing, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural or any other field of public life.
The original Racial Discrimination Bill contained a provision against race hatred speech, but this was opposed by the Opposition, and the provision withdrawn in order to secure the passage of the legislation. The Bill was passed and became the Racial Discrimination Act in 1975 (RDA).
In 1995, twenty years after the passage of the Act, public acts based on racial hatred became unlawful following amendments to the RDA known as the Racial Hatred provisions.
The complaints procedures are now administered by the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC), which in 1997 had a Race Discrimination Commissioner and an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner. They each produce regular reports on their activities.
People who feel they have been subject to racial discrimination can lodge a complaint with HREOC.
Further reference:
Australia Racial Discrimination Act 1975, including Schedule 1, "International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination".
Race Discrimination Commissioner, Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission Battles Small and Great, Canberra, Australian Government Publishing Service, 1995.
Markus, Andrew Australian Race Relations, 1788-1993, Sydney, Allen and Unwin, 1994.