Annual Report 1999 - 2000
Race
Discrimination
Dr Bill Jonas has has been acting in the position of Race Discrimination Commissioner since September 1999. This is in addition to his role as Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner.
When the term of former Race Discrimination Commissioner Zita Antonios came to an end in September 1999, the portfolio was taken up on an acting basis by Dr William Jonas, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commissioner. Dr Jonas continued work across a number of key policy areas that had been targeted in recent years, as well as completing new projects at the behest of community members with so people experience multiple layers of disadvantage, which further impedes their ability to interact and contribute as equal members of Australian society.
Research and policy
On the Sidelines - Disability and People from Non-English Speaking Background Communities
In 1999 the National Ethnic Disability Alliance approached the Commissioner with concerns that people with disabilities from non-English speaking backgrounds often experience multiple layers of discrimination in their daily lives. On the Sidelines highlights some important discrimination issues facing people with disabilities from non-English speaking background communities.
The report aims to
- Identify some key issues facing this group of people;
- Identify some strategies to assist people with disabilities from non-English speaking background communities; and
- Provide a research and advocacy resource for people and this group and other interested parties.
Several important recurring themes were evident during the preparation of the paper. They included the need to raise general community awareness about disability; the need to increase readily available and accessible information and to improve education about disability across the society as a whole; the importance of advocacy and the imperative of designing more culturally appropriate service delivery. On the Sidelines will be publicly available from September 2000.
New Country, New Stories
Small and emerging migrant communities are an ongoing feature of Australia's cultural landscape. In September 1999 the Commission released New Country, New Stories, a report documenting the experiences of migrants and refugees from countries with relatively small numbers in Australia. The report was the culmination of national consultations with a cross-section of community organizations, health workers, migrant resource centres, youth workers and other ethnic groups. Consultations covered New South Wales, Western Australia, the Northern Territory and Victoria.
The report focused on communities with less than 20,000 people who had been in Australia for less than 10 years. It identified areas such as housing, employment and recognition of qualifications, where people from cultural and linguistic minority groups may experience disadvantage or discrimination. It also identified issues for future work within the Commission and has already fed into to the development of a strategy to encourage compliance with anti-discrimination law in private housing markets. Some of these key areas included:
- Strategies to encourage compliance with anti-discrimination law in the national real estate industry (mentioned above)
- Strategies to provide targeted multilingual human rights and anti-discrimination information to individual small and emerging communities
- Examination of the issue of lack of recognition of overseas skills and employment experience
- Promotion among employers' networks of the value of qualifications and skills obtained overseas
- Providing greater profile to the experiences of people from small and emerging communities in general community anti-racism education
- Advocacy with government and other key agencies regarding human rights issues within small and emerging communities
- Development of a series of briefing notes targeted at lawyers and community advocates on the possible interpretation of key discrimination issues
In the final analysis, the report concluded that there needs to be further research into this area, as racism and discrimination is experienced by many members of small and emerging communities, particularly those who are visibly different from the majority group. New Countries, New Stories is reproduced in full on the Commission's website.
National Real Estate Industry
The 1999 New Country, New Stories report identified housing as a key area of concern for members of small and emerging migrant communities. In public consultations, community members frequently reported experiences of direct or indirect racial discrimination in private housing markets, particularly in their dealings with the real estate industry.
While the report did not measure the extent of racial discrimination in the industry, it highlighted the need to promote the provisions of the Racial Discrimination Act 1975 to real estate agents. Above all, racial discrimination represents a challenge to the professionalism of real estate agents in an increasingly multicultural Australia.
In the coming year the Race Discrimination Commissioner will approach peak real estate bodies to raise awareness of the Act and promote training and policy standards to prevent racial discrimination from occurring.
Water
We turn on the tap and out gushes the water; we have no hesitation about drinking a glassful if it. We step into the shower and expect abundant, hot, steamy water to wash over us. We press the button on the toilet and it flushes.
(Irene Moss, Race Discrimination Commissioner Water Report 1994)
The water and sanitation services most communities take for granted is not readily available in all parts of Australia. The provision of safe, clean, reliable water and sanitation services has been an area of ongoing concern for the Commission. The Commission's 1994 Water Report examined the situation in ten remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait communities and found inadequate quality and quantity of water supply and poor sanitation services.
Five years later the Commission engaged Dr Bruce Walker of the Centre for Appropriate Technology (CAT) to once again assess the provision of water and sanitation to these same ten communities. Specifically, CAT was asked to compare the situation in 1994 with the present situation, to provide a `snapshot' of where communities stand some five years later, with particular reference to
- the effectiveness of contractors and authorities
- Indigenous involvement in decision-making, training and employment opportunities and
- technical compliance, efficiency, effectiveness and sustainability.
CAT's comprehensive review was submitted to the Commission in August 1999. It documents significant advances and initiatives that have taken place in the last five years. At a national program level and in at least seven of the ten individual case study communities, the trend has been toward increased investment in water and sanitation infrastructure by the Commonwealth and States, and increased involvement by the States and the commercial sector in ongoing systems operation, management and maintenance.
However, while technical issues, consultation and cultural understanding may have improved over the past five years, many of the core issues and recommendations of the 1994 Water Report remain valid and require further examination before Indigenous people can be confident that their water and sanitation services will be sustainable. This issue will form the basis for future work by the Commission in this fundamental area of human rights - the right to access a clean, safe, reliable supply of water.
Alcohol
Since the release of the Alcohol Report in 1995 the Race Discrimination Commissioner has continued to receive approaches from Aboriginal communities requesting restrictions on the sale and distribution of alcohol to their community members. In the past twelve months the Race Discrimination Commissioner renewed two `special measures certificates', for communities in Wiluna (WA) and Alice Springs (NT). Agreements leading to the issue of `special measures certificates' are negotiated locally by Aboriginal communities and other relevant parties and certificates are issued in accordance with s8 of the Racial Discrimination Act 1975.
In October 1999 the Darwin-based Menzies School of Health Research released a report entitled Evaluation of restrictions on the sale of alcohol from Curtin Springs Roadhouse Northern Territory. The restrictions were in place as a result of `special measures certificates' issued in 1996 and 1998 by the Race Discrimination Commissioner, between the Ngaanyatjarra Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Women's Council Aboriginal Corporation, representatives of Aboriginal Pitjantjatjara communities and the licencee of the Curtin Springs Roadhouse. While the report acknowledged that restrictions on the sale of alcohol is not in itself the answer to the social and health problems associated with excess drinking, a number of findings were encouraging in relation to this area of the Commission's work.
. the apparent decline in alcohol consumption in the communities concerned has been associated with reductions in the incidence of alcohol-related health problems. It also appears to have contributed to an improvement in public order in the communities concerned .
Menzies School of Health Research Evaluation Report (p9)
Submission to Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs
During the year Australia's migration and humanitarian programs were widely discussed and debated, including efforts to combat people smuggling operations, detention centres for unauthorised arrivals and appropriate levels for Australia's migrant intake.
In February 2000 the Commission made a submission to the Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs concerning the 2000-2001 Migration and Humanitarian Programs. The submission stressed the importance of the government's role providing accurate information to the public and leading a constructive debate on improvements to the system. Debates that are based on inaccurate information or the demonisation of certain groups of people can threaten broader efforts to encourage community harmony and potentially undermine the human rights of those groups.
In particular the submission focussed on four key issues. Firstly it urged the government to retain the right of appeal to a court when a person is refused a visa under the migration or humanitarian programs. Secondly the Commission reiterated that the mandatory detention of almost all unauthorised arrivals contravenes Australia's obligations under international law. Thirdly it urged the government to promote multiculturalism and its emphasis on the diversity of all Australians as central to both tolerant cultural diversity and our evolving democracy. Finally the submission stressed the government's responsibility for providing appropriate settlement services to ensure that migrants and humanitarian arrivals can successfully build new lives in Australia.
Education and Promotion
The Commissioner produced and disseminated a range of information materials targeting education and awareness raising in the community. Given the numbers of job-related complaints, employers again featured as a particular target audience. The Race for Business training and information package, developed in 1998, continues as the central platform of our work in this area. As part of the ongoing promotion of Race for Business, the Commission intends to identify a range of key partners, both to promote the package and increase the number of cultural diversity trainers accredited to deliver the material.
Face the Facts
Following the success of this publication over the past five years, with tens of thousands of copies being distributed to schools, members of Parliament, journalists and community groups, the Commissioner decided to update and reprint Face the Facts.
Many debates about Australia's migration and refugee programs and Indigenous people have been based on inaccurate and misleading information. In 1997 version of Face the Facts countered these myths with simple and accessible facts. The booklet drew together the basic facts about Australia's diversity, migration and refugee programs, the effects of immigration on the Australian community and economy, and Indigenous communities and ongoing disadvantage.
Since that time the debates have changed, but the need for clear, accurate information remains. New questions are being asked, about people smuggling, reconciliation with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and the impact of migration on crime rates.
The Race Discrimination Commissioner has produced an updated version of Face the Facts, with a new section examining the evidence on migration and crime. It concludes that there is no evidence of a direct correlation between a particular ethnicity and crime, nor are some ethnic minorities predisposed to criminal behaviour. The new edition will be launched in September 2000 and distributed widely, as well as being available on the Commission's website.
Cultural Dimensions
The publication Cultural Dimensions, released by the Commission in early 2000, highlights the `best practice' approaches of nine expert cross-cultural practitioners. It draws on the work of trainers, policy makers and academics working in the field of cross-cultural awareness. The authors present ideas on cultural diversity, productive diversity, Aboriginal cultural awareness and racism. Culture in the workplace is explored through a range of practical scenarios, covering health, the public sector, racist and cultural stereotypes, the judiciary and historical developments in the labour market.
Bill Cope and Mary Kalantzis begin with a brief analysis of the Australian landscape and provide the broad, historical framework for the development of the cross-cultural awareness theme. They draw on the concept of `productive diversity' and the Charter of Public Service in a Culturally Diverse Society as they outline the strategies and knowledge needed to develop organisational learning environments that will assist employees and management to stay abreast of constant workplace change.
Tonina Gucciardo-Masci and Mirta Gonzalez concentrate on the complexity of developing cross-cultural dialogue - within ourselves, between people and with the world around us. Inherent in this is the challenge to step outside our own cultural boundaries and comfort zones. Joanna Kalowski presents ideas on mediation and bridging differences by looking at what people share, not how they are different. She emphasises the `incontrovertible fact that diversity is here to stay', regardless of the increasing emphasis being placed on a return to mainstream values.
Santina Bertone makes the point that racist and cultural stereotypes in Australia have been rooted in the economic and social environment of the receiving society at the time. Her paper traces the theme, from the Second World War through to the 1990s, of relegating different ethnic groups to particular segments of the labour market. Sonja Pastor and Phil Elsegood highlight the need for Aboriginal cultural awareness training in the Northern Territory. They distinguish between Aboriginal cultural awareness training and cross-cultural training and develop an approach to training that informs organisational change.
Vasiliki Nihas outlines the principles that guide best practice in tailoring cross-cultural awareness training to the needs of a particular group. She focuses particularly on the public sector, taking into consideration departmental requirements, organisational values and the broader political, social and economic agendas that may affect requirements. In the health arena, Harry Minas presents ideas concerning the relevance of culture to clinical practice, the challenges of cultural pluralism, minority rights in a culturally diverse society and the implications of these issues for health care and professional education in a multicultural society.
Against a background of the intersecting issues of violence against women, sexual assault and racism, Maria Dimopolous challenges the notions of judicial independence and objectivity within the legal system. She outlines a model for training the judiciary. Kerrie Tim draws on lifelong, personal experiences of racism. She examines the broad historical context of Aboriginal affairs, internalised racism and oppression and suggests ways for Aboriginal people to begin working against them.
This publication contains a broad cross section of issues, authors, approaches and experiences. Ongoing public interest in race issues - including, in some instances, greater public expression of racist views - highlights the ongoing imperative for education and quality training in cross-cultural awareness which addresses prejudice and discrimination. Cultural Dimensions is important reading for anyone interested in training, productive diversity, and programs to address the challenges of racism and cultural pluralism in Australia.
World Conference against Racism
The United Nations Commission on Human Rights is holding the World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance in South Africa from 31 August to 7 September 2001. The UN General Assembly requested the World Conference to focus on "action-oriented and practical steps to eradicate racism", including questions of prevention, education and protection and the provision of effective remedies. The Conference will also examine emerging challenges such as those posed by the proliferation of race hate speech on the Internet.
The preparatory process for the Conference, and the Conference itself, will be of great importance to the struggle against the various forms of entrenched fascism and intolerance in Australia. The objectives of the World Conference are relevant to many Australian race issues including:
endemic discrimination against Indigenous Australians;
reconciliation;
the treatment of migrants, refugees and asylum-seekers;
the need for the prevention of racial discrimination through education;
racial hated and vilification, including combating hate speech and race hate on the Internet; and
the progressive development of international mechanisms for the implementation of the International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination.
The Conference provides the opportunity to promote better understanding of racism in all its forms, to share experiences of discrimination and to exchange strategies for preventing it. It offers the potential for a renewed focus on issues of race and racial discrimination in the lead-up to the Conference, and over the coming years.
In the first half of 2000, the Race Discrimination Commissioner began promoting the objectives of the World Conference and held preliminary discussions with a range of sectors concerning how Australians can make most use of the Conference. In the coming year the Commissioner will be working to build a common platform against racism, bringing together as many diverse sectors of the community as possible in a united stand against all forms of intolerance. In addition to activities within Australia, the Commissioner is planning to take an active role in international preparations for the Conference and in the World Conference itself.
Last updated 1 December 2001.
