Voices of Australia 30 years of the Racial Discrimination Act: 1975 - 2005 A collection of real-life stories about Australians living together 30 1 VOICES OF AUSTRALIA MAGAZINE Contact details Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) GPO Box 5218, Sydney NSW 2001 Phone: (02) 9284 9600; Fax: (02) 9284 9611 Additional copies of this magazine and audio CD are available free of charge while stocks last from the Publications Officer, phone (02) 9284 9600. Copyright information Copyright © Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission 2005 Copying is authorised provided the source, Voices of Australia Magazine, the publisher, Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, and the publication date, October 2005, are acknowledged. Note: while copyright of all Voices of Australia publications remains with HREOC, the copyright of the stories, photographs and other materials belongs to the author. ISBN: 0 642 26997 1 Website Additional information about the Voices of Australia project and the Racial Discrimination Act 1975 (Cth) is available on the HREOC website: http://www.humanrights.gov.au/voices/ Website information includes more stories and other submissions, download of the Voices of Australia 2 audio CD, project background, and a complete list of the Race Discrimination Unit projects in the last 30 years at HREOC, and information about additional activities that marked the 30th anniversary of the Racial Discrimination Act, including articles and speeches. Artwork, design and printing Artwork/Report design: Victor Cabello, Visual Communicator, MLC Powerhouse Design Studio Phone: 9692 9222. Printing: MLC Prinitng Note: All stories submitted by children under 18 years have been approved for publication by a parent/guardian. Note: Many of the authors of the stories chose to identify themselves by reference to their cultural background, age and/or place of residence. These identifiers have been retained in this publication. Warning: the following publication may contain images and/or names of deceased Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. We apologise for any offense this may cause. Foreword This year we are celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Racial Discrimination Act (1975) (Cth), an Act which makes it unlawful to discriminate against people on the basis of their race, colour, descent or ethnic or national origin. This law is an important statement of our belief that everyone has a right to enjoy the same fundamental freedoms and human rights, regardless of their race, colour, or where they come from. The enactment of the Racial Discrimination Act in 1975 also marks an important stage in our development as a nation. The timeline provided in this publication, entitled History of change – timeline of Australia’s race relations, shows us that the Race Discrimination Act was the first human rights legislation in Australia. It made racial discrimination unlawful and provided legal remedies to those affected by racism. Yet it was introduced just two years after the dismantling of the White Australia Policy: a government policy that applied, in a racially discriminatory manner, an English language test as a condition of migration to Australia. Thirty years on, the Racial Discrimination Act continues to give significant protection to many people who would otherwise be unable to enjoy the same rights as others because of their racial or ethnic background. In my view this protection would be improved if the Act was more widely known and understood. To this purpose I have provided within this publication a Plain English Guide to the Racial Discrimination Act. This has been a challenging task but it is hoped that as a result of this work young people, adults, the elderly, people who do not have English as their first language, people who are new to Australia and people from many different ethnic and diverse backgrounds will have greater access to the protection that the Racial Discrimination Act has to offer. But laws alone are not enough to eradicate racism in our society. We also need to understand one another and learn from each other’s experiences so we can enjoy the great benefits of our cultural diversity. One way of doing this is to share and listen to each other’s stories. Our call for stories about people’s experiences of race relations in Australia over the past 30 years brought an overwhelming response with almost 500 stories received. Around 100 of these are published here, and many more have been placed on our website at www.humanrights.gov.au/voices. We have also recorded audio interviews that have been produced on a CD. You can download these on the internet so you can hear and experience the stories 3 directly. In the coming months we will be producing complementary curriculum-linked education resources for primary and secondary schools to support classroom discussion of racial issues. The stories selected for this publication paint a very descriptive picture of the good and bad faces of race relations in Australia over the past 30 years. They tell of the experiences of high profile identities and sporting heroes, grandparents, parents, aunties and uncles, sisters and brothers, neighbours, acquaintances, friends and even strangers. Stories are told by the original inhabitants - Indigenous Australians and by all who have made Australia their home, be they new or old migrant or refugee Australians. These stories remind us that Australia is a society of many diverse communities. While it is an ancient land, and home to the world’s oldest continuing culture, it is also a young and vibrant multicultural society with nearly a quarter of Australians born overseas, and another quarter having at least one parent who was born in another country. Yet the stories also remind us that within our diversity there are values that many of us share. One of these values is that racism and discrimination have no place in our community. While some of the stories capture the pain of racism, over all, Voices of Australia is about people’s strength and hopefulness – it’s about the day to day process of getting on with each other and growing together as individuals and as a nation. I would like to thank everyone who contributed to making the Voices of Australia heard. In doing so you have opened your hearts to share your stories, to express your pain, your fears and your hopes. It is in this spirit that I encourage people to read these stories with an open mind and open heart so we can continue to learn from each other for the next thirty years and beyond. Tom Calma Acting Race Discrimination Commissioner VOICES OF AUSTRALIA MAGAZINE Contents Chapter 1 The History of the Racial Discrimination Act 5 Chapter 2 History of change – timeline of Australia’s race relations 11 Chapter 3 Australia our home Introduction by Jackie Huggins AM 19 Stories 21 Chapter 4 Unexpected friendships Introduction by Professor Gary Bouma 31 Stories 33 Chapter 5 Racism: not in my backyard 4 Introduction by Dr Eva Sallis 41 Stories 43 Chapter 6 Breaking down barriers Introduction by Jason Yat-sen Li 51 Stories 54 Chapter 7 From tolerance to respect Introduction by Randa Abdel-Fettah 63 Stories 65 Chapter 8 Plain English Guide to the Racial Discrimination Act 71 Acknowledgements 81 The History of the Racial Discrimination Act 5 Illustrated by Helana Sawires, 12, NSW 2005 21 December 1965 The International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) was adopted and made available for ratification by the General Assembly of the United Nations. It declared that: "All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights and… everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms… without distinction of any kind, in particular as to race, colour or national origin." 13 October 1966 Australia signed ICERD, indicating its support for the key principles and agreeing to work towards enacting domestic legislation consistent with a country’s obligations under the Convention, so that Australia could ratify (be formally bound by) ICERD. CHAPTER 1 • THE HISTORY OF THE RACIAL DISCRIMINATION ACT VOICES OF AUSTRALIA MAGAZINE 11 June 1975 The Racial Discrimination Act 1975 (Cth) (the RDA) was passed by Parliament. Prior to its enactment, the Racial Discrimination Bill had been rejected by the Senate on several occasions. It was finally accepted after major changes were made, including the removal of the offences relating to incitement and promotion of racial hatred (later introduced, in part, by the Racial Hatred Act 1995 (Cth)). 30 September 1975 Australia ratified ICERD, agreeing to be bound by it under international law. However, Australia submitted a reservation which meant that it was not bound to criminalise racial hatred and incitement to racial discrimination (since that part of the RDA had failed to gain the support of the Federal Parliament). The reservation read: "The Government of Australia ... declares that Australia is not at present in a position specifically to treat as offences all the matters covered by article 4 (a) of the Convention…. It is the intention of the Australian Government, at the first suitable moment, to seek from Parliament legislation specifically implementing the terms of article 4 (a)." 31 October 1975 The RDA came into operation. Al Grassby, former Minister for Immigration in the Whitlam Government, was appointed as the first Commissioner for Community Relations. Under the RDA, the Commissioner 6 could hear and conciliate discrimination complaints, as well as undertake education and research projects. Al Grassby later described the importance of the RDA: "The battle against racial discrimination could not begin and end with the Act. But the legislation was to powerfully recast the terms of the struggle and give real legal and moral muscle to those who waged it." December 1981 The Human Rights Commission was established (by the Human Rights Commission Act 1981 (Cth)).