CANBERRA (Pacific Media Watch / Australian Human Rights Commission / First Nations Telegraph / Canterbury-Bankstown Express): The Australian Human Rights Commission has lauded the results of a poll in which 88 percent of respondents opposed the Australian government's bid to water down the Racial Discrimination Act.
Australia’s Race Discrimination Commissioner Tim Soutphommasane said: "There is a high level of opposition to plans to water down the Race Discrimination Act. The overwhelming majority of Australians see no need for repealing or amending our racial vilification laws".
Soutphommasane said the current laws are important because they send a clear signal about what is unacceptable behaviour in public.
“They have provided all Australians with a legal means of holding others accountable for public acts of racial vilification that have the effect of degrading them," he added.
Recently, the conservative Liberal Party-led government 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.
But just two weeks ago, a Monash University study found that racism was increasing in Australia. The study found that only three percent of "non-English speaking" migrants were able to enjoy having "caring, friendly and hospitable neighbours" in Australia.
Discrimination reported
"Racial discrimination in Australia is not a minor matter. More than 40 percent of recent arrivals from a number of Asian countries report experience of discrimination over the last 12 months," the author of the study, Professor Andrew Markus, said.
First Nations Telegraph founder and editor Stephen Hagan has chronicled all the cases he has taken up using the Racial Discrimination Act over the years, including one where he successfully challenged racism against a teenage Aboriginal girl from a McDonald's manager.
Meanwhile, the Canterbury-Bankstown Express reported that a mass rally against government's proposed law changes will take place on May 25 in Lakemba.
"The Walk for Respect" is about the community showing unity and "opposition to racism and bigotry", Labour MP Tony Burke told the newspaper.
Burke said the Canterbury-Bankstown region would be severely affected if the changes were to go through due to the number of people from different backgrounds living in the area.
The Canterbury Council has also opposed the changes to the Racial Discrimination Act, the Canterbury-Bankstown Express reported.
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