Zali Steggall (Warringah, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I'd like to start by acknowledging the traditional elders and owners of the land on which we meet, and pay my respect to elders past and present—acknowledging, of course, that we can't talk about racism without acknowledging that incredible custodianship of First Nation Australians. We don't talk about racism enough in this place, I would say. When we do, too often we talk about it in the abstract, when racism in Australia is still structural. It's persistent and it causes real harm. It damages health. It drives exclusion. It distorts who gets heard, who gets hired, who gets believed, who gets care and who gets punished. The Australian Human Rights Commission has been explicit: racism in health care is a public health emergency, and racism in Australia remains a whole-of-society problem requiring reform across law, justice, health, education, workplaces, media and data collection.

This day cannot just be about moral statements and symbolic outrage. It actually has to follow with action. March 21 is the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination and should force some honesty in this parliament. The truth is, Australia doesn't do enough to celebrate our multiculturalism. It likes to celebrate it, but it's still far too reluctant to confront racism with the seriousness it deserves and really call it out when it's occurring.

Australia is one of the most diverse countries in the world. Nearly half of all Australians are born overseas or have at least one parent born overseas. More than one in five Australians speak a language other than English at home. This continent is home to the oldest continuing culture on earth: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. That diversity is one of our great strengths. But diversity is not justice, and diversity means very little if institutions continue to entrench racist barriers and norms. Today should not just be about condemning racism in principle and talking about the small things that can be done. We actually have to talk about eliminating it in practice.

The International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination is observed on 21 March, and it's important to acknowledge why that date has been selected. It's a day marked in tragedy. It's the day when, in 1960, police in Sharpeville in South Africa killed 69 people at a peaceful protest against apartheid laws. Since then, there have been many more incidents of murder and killing around the world based on racism and racial hatred. Last year marked the 60th anniversary of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, which is the treaty that commits states to take immediate and effective action to eliminate racial discrimination. It's a day, as I said, that comes from bloodshed. It comes from the recognition that racism can be embedded in law, normalised by institutions and protected by silence.

That history matters in Australia. Racism here is not incidental to our national story. It sits inside the story of dispossession, the White Australia policy, exclusion, overpolicing, undertreatment and political scapegoating. More than half of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people surveyed in the 2024 Australian Reconciliation Barometer said they had experienced racism in the past six months, and 56 per cent believe Australia is a racist country. Among younger First Nations adults the numbers are worse: 63 per cent of the 18- to 24-year-olds and 68 per cent of the 25- to 34-year-olds surveyed reported experiences of racism. In workplaces, new research released this week found that almost 60 per cent of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employees experience racism and, at the current rate of change, it could take 118 years before Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander workers no longer hear racial slurs and jokes at work. I mean, that is just ridiculous.

In universities, the Human Rights Commission's Racism@Uni study found that racism is widespread and systemic across the sector. Almost 70 per cent of respondents reported indirect racism, and 15 per cent reported direct interpersonal racism. Trust in complaint systems was found to be extremely low. Clearly, in the university sector, these are major issues that need resolving.

In our justice system, First Nations people remain grotesquely overrepresented. We are absolutely failing on this front. As of the December quarter of 2025, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people accounted for 37 per cent of all prisoners in Australia, despite making up a smaller part of the population. The imprisonment rate for First Nations men was 4,774 per 100,000—so much higher than for any anyone else. Racism is not only about individual prejudice; it's institutional, and we can see that through our state and territory laws. They are, at their heart, racist in how they are looking at the incarceration of young people. We know Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are overrepresented, and, once engaged with the criminal system, incidence of recurrence is much greater and the likelihood of being able to change someone's life's direction is so much less.

Racism is not a fringe issue; it shapes health outcomes, education outcomes, justice outcomes, employment outcomes and social cohesion. The Australian Human Rights Commission delivered the national antiracism framework in November 2024. I have in fact spoken about that framework a number of times in this place. It contains 63 recommendations across legal reform, justice, health, education, workplaces, media and arts and data collection And yet—I say to members of the government—we have not had a response. The government must publicly respond to the national antiracism framework and commit to an implementation plan with timelines, accountability and funding. I've heard great sentiments and great contributions in this place from members of the government; what we haven't heard is a commitment from the government to implement the recommendations or to fund the implementation of the recommendations. We see some groups obtain results much quicker, yet this antiracism framework has sat there on the shelf for two years now. The recommendations are clear; what's missing is the commitment and political will of the Albanese government to implement them. We can't keep commissioning reports, thanking people for their lived experience and then shelving the implementation. A framework without delivery is not reform; it's just delay with better branding.

Leadership also means refusing to exploit race, religion or ethnicity for political gain. Too often in this place, that is what we see. Leadership means treating all racism seriously—antisemitism, Islamophobia and anti-Aboriginal racism—because the statistics are too ugly to avoid. It's about treating all incidents with the same urgency and seriousness. I was appalled by the delay in the consideration of the attempted terrorism attack on the Invasion Day rallies in Western Australia, the delay in calling that what it was and the continuing double standards in how different acts of racism are treated. Leadership means calling out racist conduct inside this parliament as well, not just outside it. As I said just recently, the immigration law amendments by the government are racist policy. They are seeking to classify people as a whole and treat them as a group on the basis of race or nationality. When racism is tolerated in this building, it sends a message to all Australians watching that abuse is normal. It can't be.

I'm calling on the government to publicly respond to the national antiracism framework and commit to an implementation plan with timelines, accountability and funding. In health, that means embedding cultural safety standards, antiracism training, interpreter access and community led services. The commission's review on health inequities could not be clearer. Racism in the health system contributes to poor health, chronic illness, mistrust and premature death. In justice, it means legislating a federally consistent age of criminal responsibility so we stop locking up children. It should be 14. We have signed on to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. It is unacceptable that we continue at the federal level to pass the buck down to states and territories and allow them to lock up children as young as 10. Overincarceration, deaths in custody, punitive youth justice settings and the failure to address systemic bias show our systems are broken. In workplaces and universities, it means complaints systems people actually trust. It means leadership accountability, workforce diversity, proper data and consequences for repeated failure. In politics, it means ending the cynical use of fear, division and coded rhetoric for political gain.

The International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination asks whether we are serious about eliminating racial discrimination. On the evidence so far, we're still far better at naming racism than ending it. So I urge everyone in this place to do better.

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