Lidia Thorpe (Victoria, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

How wonderful of the government to celebrate half a century of solving racism in this country. Of course, in the last 50 years since introduction of the Racial Discrimination Act, First Peoples and people of colour have experience no racism and discrimination at all—LOL!—because this country is so welcoming to asylum seekers and to refugees and values its rich history of the oldest continuing living culture in the world more than anything.

If you ask me, the anniversary of the Racial Discrimination Act is not a reason to celebrate but a reason for the governments of this country to hang their heads in shame. Racism kills. Despite the act supposedly making it unlawful to discriminate based on race, ethnicity, colour, country of origin or immigration status, this country's immigration laws are so racist that even Trump is jealous. The act has been around since I was three years old, and this country is more racist today than back then. I experienced racism at school, at work and even in the hospital where I gave birth to my three children. I had to fight when my kids experienced racism then and fight when my grandkids experience racism today.

My people are the most incarcerated people in the world. Our babies continue to be taken from us in ever increasing numbers, and more and more of our people are taking their lives. We have Nazis marching for racism and politicians standing with them. Nazis can even publicly and violently attack us and desecrate a burial site and get away with it with a slap on the wrist. The genocidal practices continue day by day in this country. They are systemic, sophisticated and driven by this place.

Publicly, of course, this government is trying to save face through a tick-a-box measure like the Racial Discrimination Act and by having a Race Discrimination Commissioner. The commissioner's National Anti-Racism Framework showed the act has no antiracist or systemic approach. There's a huge backlog of racism complaints, and, even when people manage to go through this challenging process, it hardly ever ends in anything real, in actual redress or in any consequences for the perpetrator. When the government want to be racist, they can just suspend the Racial Discrimination Act, as they did in the Northern Territory intervention.

This very workplace—colonial headquarters—is built on racism, and it's not any safer than it was back then. There is no mandatory antiracism training here. I am certain that almost no parliamentarians have ever had such training, and it shows in what they say, in their behaviours and in their actions every day in this place. In fact, I still get reprimanded for calling out racism in this place by the very president of this place while those who are actively racist get protected and supported by this system. Meanwhile the anti-racism commissioner is supposed to—