Sale Community Consultation Report
Racism and civil society: A community consultation held at the Adult Community Education Service, Sale Victoria, on 25 June 2001: conducted by the Victorian Equal Opportunity Commission, which also prepared this report.
Theme 2 - Victims of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance.
Theme 1 - Sources, causes, forms and contemporary manifestations of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance.
Participants in the Sale consultation noted that causes of racism in regional Victoria, and in Australia generally, are complex, contextual and historical. Racism has no rational or essential basis, rather it is a product of historical relations that enable difference to be used in relationships of power. Participants stressed that historical and structural sources of racism are yet to be fully acknowledged in Australia. Racist and discriminatory policies and practices, it was suggested, have long lasting marginalising effects that need to be countered, not just altered.
Sources of racism for participants in the Gippsland region appear to be multifarious. Racism has been experienced in numerous ways including:
- Interpersonally
(directly from an individual);
- Socially (groups
of people i.e. a class room situation);
- Publicly (hate
speech in public fora);
- Organisationally
(particular organisations providing employment or services in a direct
or indirect discriminatory fashion);
- Structurally (particular
policy decisions which make access and inclusion unlikely. It was noted
that some 'well meaning' policies and practices have a discriminatory,
isolating effect);
- Representationally
(absence of visual representation in a range of areas including media,
business, government);
- Systemically,
(broad ranging practices that cannot be narrowed down to discreet acts
of racism - less favourable living conditions eg poverty, health, mortality,
education levels, employment access, incarceration levels were all identified
as effects of systemic racism that require broad, multi-faceted strategies);
- Administratively (through government policy and the implementation of policy).
No one source of racism can be separated from another.
Participants in the Gippsland region identified racism in a range of areas:
- Interpersonally
(student/staff to student/staff)
- Socially (comments in class that several people participated in without teacher intervention or with tacit encouragement).
Living with daily experiences of racism has led numerous students in the local community to suffer detriment, for example, they respond to racism by avoiding school or leaving school at an early age. Others respond with violence which often leads to expulsion or suspension. Some become severely depressed and even become suicidal.
- Structurally (curriculum content identified as discriminatory by both content and exclusion and the practice of providing Indigenous students with different educational programs identified as having a discriminatory effect and grounded in stereotypes).
A regional school regularly takes Koori students on camps. Whilst the students found this fun and potentially useful it was noted that students would suffer academically and be behind other students. Students were selected on the grounds of race alone whereas a case by case needs analysis may be more appropriate.
Employment appears to be one of the most exclusionary fields of public life in the local area. Participants stated that, in the main, vocational courses rarely lead to full time work when public funding ran out, and skills development rarely correlated with employment for local Aboriginal residents and people from culturally diverse backgrounds.
Ramahyuk Aboriginal District Co-op in Sale provided telling statistics in relation to employment opportunities. Whilst there are 300 Koori members of the Wellington Shire community only 3 people are employed outside of the Koori community development schemes. It was noted that any history (work with Ramahyuk, education schemes etc.) that identified applicants as Koori, regardless of appearance, caused applicants to be rejected.
Similarly in Gippsland communities where tourism and service industries provide high levels of employment, Koori young people were not utilised to further develop the industries.
The Migrant Resource Centre noted that similar employment barriers exist in relation to refugees living in the local area.
Accessible and suitable accommodation is integral to all facets of life and a failure to locate accommodation will mean that barriers to employment and other areas of public life will be compacted.
- Private rental
market - only 1 Koori person in the Sale region has been successful
in locating accommodation in the private rental market;
- Public housing.
In provision of services, a range of services were identified but of particular relevance in the local areas are:
- Health services
Participants expressed particular concern about the delivery of medical services in culturally appropriate ways that enable all members to be fully assisted and informed about their health. Participants noted that translators are regularly bypassed because practitioners argue it serves to double the period of consultation. A local woman was forced to use her 10-year-old son as an interpreter when she went to the doctor after experiences of domestic violence. Her visa status required a doctor to 'verify' the experience, with her son as interpreter this could not happen.
- Financial services
Bomb threats were received by local migrant community centres while other public acts of alleged vilification were occurring regularly.
- Focussing on race
in negative stories
A local newspaper ran a story headed 'Migrant Nabbed'. The story stated that a local Chinese man had been living 'illegally' in the area for a number of years. Participants felt that the story encouraged readers to identify migrants as potential safety risks to the community and as potentially unlawful.
- Lack of diverse
representation in popular cultural images - positive images were generally
regarded as superficial (eg sporting success)
- Lack of media
addressing racism
- Specifically targeted vilifying material (local publications and internet sites specifically identified).
- Policing
Participants identified local experiences of police racism and discriminatory policing but noted that it varied across the Gippsland region. In the Sale area it was noted that the use of designated community support volunteers ensured that most Koori people were supported through the interview / arrest process. However in other areas or when police from outside of the immediate area became involved, the experience was much different. - Courts
Inappropriate use of interpreters and lack of available literature in languages other than English were again identified as causing inequitable access to the legal system for both defendants and applicants for court orders. The cuts in legal aid funding were identified as having a particularly negative effect on marginalised groups. Those outside of prioritised areas were being further harmed. In one example given, a woman in urgent need of an intervention order could not access an appropriate interpreter (interpreting services are located in Dandenong) and was instead required to utilise a person identified by police. This caused a breach in confidentially in her community.
It was noted that the level of English deemed requisite to appear in local courts has lead to a lack of considered judgement in some cases. In addition to language barriers it was noted that cultural difference was not being adequately acknowledged. For example, defendants from some backgrounds will agree with propositions put by the police or magistrates regardless of their belief in the truth of the statements, simply because in their cultures it is considered ill-mannered to disagree with people in authority.
- Incarceration
- Immigration Law
It was noted that both the content of the Migration Act and the application of the Act can have discriminatory effects. Refugees with Temporary Protection Visas in particular were subject to discriminatory practices as they do not have access to English education and comparable welfare support. Because of the temporary nature of their visas they were less likely to feel a part of the future of the community. Organisations that choose to support refugees may suffer financially as they may not receive funding (eg employment assistance schemes). Similar issues face migrants who have been in Australia for less than 2 years.These changes to migration law are relatively new to Australia and thus the full potential discriminatory impact of such policies may as yet be unexplored. It was suggested that racism exists where categories of people are legitimated and that current immigration practice makes clear definitions between the arrival method of refugees which set up distinct categories of community status.
Theme 2 - Victims of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance.
Participants identified a number of specific groups who are direct victims of racism. Groups of particular concern in the Gippsland region are:
- Indigenous Australians;
- Culturally and linguistically diverse groups. (It was noted that the impact and frequency of racism varies in this large category. Smaller and newly arrived communities are considered particularly vulnerable as are recent refugees and asylum seekers because current immigrations policy provides some refugees with limited 'temporary protection' and excludes them from accessing full welfare services. This has a flow-on discriminatory effect).
It was stressed that racism cannot be isolated from other forms of discrimination. Race intersects with other attributes and can have a compounding discriminatory effect.
Other attributes identified as compounding racism in the Gippsland region are:
- Sex
- Age
- Religion
- Sexuality
- Disability /
Impairment
- Geographic location (it was observed that both as a regional community as a whole and within it, people were treated less favourably when associated with particular locations)
Participants also noted that people who do not fall into the above categories can be victims of racism, particularly:
- Opponents of racism;
- People associated with or connected to Indigenous or culturally and linguistically diverse members of the community.
It was recognised that the above groups are directly affected by racism in their daily lives but that all Victorians are diminished by the existence of racism and prejudice in their community.
Theme 3: Measures of prevention, education and protection aimed at the eradication of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance at the national, regional and international levels.
It was noted that incentives to eradicate racism in the community must be significant. Participants noted that in some quarters there are identifiable rewards for racism.
Whilst the loss to business reputation is often utilised to encourage business to address racism, it was noted that the public naming of some organisations or people may have the opposite effect in particular communities. It is therefore necessary that compliance measures accompany incentives.
It appears that designated community support people within the criminal justice field reduce the experience of discrimination and racism. These positions are currently filled by volunteers and thus rely on the goodwill, time and organisation of the local community. It is suggested that these positions attract payment and that every police station be required to utilise support people.
The urgent need for a national recognition and apology to Indigenous Australians for past injustices was identified by participants as essential to combating racism and encouraging reconciliation in Australia.
Education programs that include cross-cultural awareness, the effects and histories of racism, indirect racism and legislative sanctions need to be delivered to:
- All students at
primary and secondary level;
- Tertiary students
in education, law, policing, all health courses, media, social work;
- All educators
in the primary, secondary and tertiary sectors (This includes training
in appropriate mechanisms to deal with racism in the educative setting);
- Accommodation providers.
It was suggested that research into the causes of marginalisation is required to substantiate local experience and identify measures of redress. It was noted that research into the experience of racism in the local area would be useful as well as identifying:
- how many complaints
of race discrimination and/or vilification are lodged in the area compared
to experiences of discrimination?
- What stops people
making complaints (if lower than state average)?
- What redress systems are available?
Provide support systems to develop community plans to address racism. A community public forum may assist in addressing local experiences of systemic racism.
Theme 4 - Provision of effective remedies, recourse, redress, [compensatory] and other measures at the national, regional and international levels
- Implement all
recommendations of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody;
- Ensure qualified interpreters are available to all defendants, witnesses and applicants of court orders in all jurisdictions and at all Police Stations.
- Review council
by-laws that may arise from racist assumptions or indirectly harm particular
racial groups.
By-laws that prohibit drinking of alcohol in public areas were identified as laws which target Indigenous Australians and result in less favourable treatment. - Require local councils to employ diversity officers to initially audit council practice and procedures, and then to develop anti-racist policies to be incorporated into all sectors of the community.
- Enable group
or representative complaints
Participants identified the problems with individual complaint based legislation. In regional and rural communities it was noted that the likelihood of victimisation following lodgement of a complaint was high and long lasting. Participants felt that complaints lodged by representative organisations or community advocates (fully funded) would be less likely to lead to individual victimisation and isolation. - Extend affirmative
action
Affirmative action legislation is currently limited to women in particular employment circumstances. Whilst participants suggested that the terminology may require reviewing it was felt there is a need to require employers to positively review their diversity and employment practices. - Remove legislative
exemptions
Make all Australian law, delegated, state or federal subject to human rights and anti-discrimination legislation. - Abolish Temporary
Protection Visas
Asylum seekers who are determined to be refugees should be provided with the same rights and services as all other lawful members of the Australian community.
Theme 5: Strategies to achieve full and effective equality, including international cooperation and enhancement of the United Nations and other international mechanisms in combating racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, and follow-up.
Participants suggested that the Commission should report back to the community the results and findings of the WCAR.
