Our recent advocacy on anti-racism

Last month, we developed and submitted two significant pieces of work focused on cultural diversity and anti-racism.

The first submission was to the Australian Human Rights Commission on its proposed National Anti-Racism Framework and the second was a response to the Victorian Anti-Racism Taskforce, which is developing a Victorian Anti-Racism Strategy.

This work aims to reform systems through advocacy and is part of our commitment to building a more inclusive workplace for our staff, and delivering better outcomes for clients and communities informed by the voices of people with lived experience of racism.

Our submissions recognise the impact of structural racism on First Nations people and culturally and linguistically diverse people, highlighting the importance of self-determination, and the need to embed anti-racism policies within the legal, mental health, social, welfare, child protection and other relevant sectors.

We do this in solidarity with people with lived experience of racism. Our submissions include the stories of five of our clients and their experiences of racism, many shared in their own words.

Both submissions drew on the expertise of teams and staff across our organisation and were also shaped by the leadership of the Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service and the Ethnic Communities’ Council of Victoria.

Key points

The submissions recognise that systemic racism in Australia, including within the legal system and other social and welfare systems, has historical foundations in settler colonialism. The imposition of centuries of colonial policies, laws and practices aimed at dispossessing First Nations peoples continues to manifest in ways that systematically disadvantage and harm First Nations peoples and communities today.

Both submissions highlight the importance of building a fairer, more effective legal system; achieving racial equality; accepting, supporting, and celebrating cultural diversity; and preventing and addressing systemic racism, both as a driver into the legal and other related systems, and within those systems.

Both also outline the key actions and strategies needed to achieve these overarching goals, with these high-level recommendations:

1. Prioritise prevention, including ensuring a comprehensive definition of racism that fully captures the experiences of First Nations and culturally and linguistically diverse communities, as well as calling out the key drivers of racism.
2. Civil and criminal legal reform, including raising the minimum age of criminal responsibility; strengthening anti-vilification laws; reforming bail laws; empowering victims of racism to seek redress and providing them with support; strengthening laws and sanctions against racial discrimination and hate; and reducing over-criminalisation and over-incarceration of First Nations and culturally and linguistically diverse communities.
3. Embed evaluation and accountability measures.
4. Raise cultural safety competence levels within the legal and other related systems to deepen understanding of race, racism and racial inequality.
5. Improve data gathering to report incidences of racism, including in the legal system.
6. Prioritise the voices of individuals and communities with lived experience of racism.
7. Protect people from racial discrimination and racial hatred through an effective legal framework.

While the Victorian Anti-Racism Taskforce is yet to release a timeline for the development and implementation of its state-based strategy, we expect the Australian Human Rights Commission to release its revised framework concept paper and a consultation report in June.

More information

Read our submission to the Australian Human Rights Commission.

Read more about our strategic priorities in our corporate plan.

Read about our commitment to diversity and inclusion.