SYDNEY (Pacific Media Watch / Fiji Times / Sydney Morning Herald): Racism is on the rise in Australia - just as the government gives the green light to dampen laws which combat racial discrimination, says a new research report.
The Fiji Times reported today on a new Monash University academic study which found that only three percent of "non-English speaking" migrants were able to enjoy having "caring, friendly and hospitable neighbours" in Australia.
The study by Monash University professor Andrew Markus revealed that racism against migrants of colour has increased over the past 15 years. At that time, studies showed that most migrants said "friendly Aussies were the most appealing part about moving Down Under".
"Racial discrimination in Australia is not a minor matter. More than 40 per cent of recent arrivals from a number of Asian countries report experience of discrimination over the last 12 months," Professor Markus told the Sydney Morning Herald.
But just hours later, the conservative Liberal Party now in power in Australia endorsed broad changes to the Racial Discrimination Act.
Under the proposed changes, it will no longer be unlawful to "offend, insult, humiliate or intimidate" people. And victims of racism will not be able to argue that they or their communities have been vilified or intimidated unless an "an ordinary reasonable" Australian would agree. The new law changes also say that anything said during a live performance, TV show or public discussion on politics cannot be deemed to be racial discrimination.
The law is being changed on the initiative of Australia's attorney-general, George Brandis, who claims that the current law amounts to "political censorship", ABC Online Indigenous has reported.
Brandis and the Liberal Party decided to change the law after a self-professed conservative commentator, Andrew Bolt, was successfully sued by nine people over an article he wrote stating that indigenous people were only adopting Aboriginal identities to get ahead in their careers and in politics.
Brandis says his new law changes will make sure that such lawsuits can "never happen in Australia again".
But indigenous members of parliament, the opposition and indigenous media outlets have slammed Brandis and the conservatives, with one MP from Abbott's party threatening to join another party if the amendments go ahead.
Brandis responded yesterday by saying that people had "a right to be bigots".
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 New Zealand Licence.
Pacific Media Watch
