HREOC media release: Racial Discrimination Act should reflect contemporary Australia

The Australian Race Discrimination Commissioner, Tom Calma, said today that a fresh consideration of the Racial Discrimination Act 1975 (RDA) is warranted to ensure it remains relevant to contemporary Australian society.

Commissioner Calma made this comment as he released the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) Background Paper No 1, An International Comparison of the Racial Discrimination Act 1975.

“As the first anti-discrimination law in Australia, the RDA declared unambiguously to the Australian people that racism and discrimination were no longer acceptable in our society,’ the Commissioner said.

“After 33 years it is important that the RDA continues to be reviewed against the goals it seeks to achieve, which are equality and non-discrimination,” said Mr Calma. “Yet it is also important that the legislation evolves in response to the changing makeup and reality of Australian society, which is very different today to what it was in 1975.”

Commissioner Calma pointed out that, since 1975, thousands of individuals and organisations have used the RDA to address racism, either by making complaints of discrimination, or by negotiating policy changes based on the broader principles of racial equality.

The legislation has also made possible important developments in the area of Indigenous rights, culminating in the recognition of native title in 1993.’

“The Background Paper analyses the continuing usefulness and effectiveness of the RDA by placing it in context with contemporary race discrimination legislation in other parts of the world, including Canada, the United Kingdom, the United States and the European Union,” Mr Calma said.

The Paper will now be distributed to interested parties is downloadable from the HREOC website at www.humanrights.gov.au/about/media/papers/