The figures were included in a report published today by the Australian Human Rights Commission, Sharing the Stories of Australian Muslims.

It found three in four (74%) Australian Muslims said they felt ‘Australian’, but one in four (23%) said they felt unable to speak up when they experienced discrimination.

Race Discrimination Commissioner Chin Tan said: “Australia’s Muslim communities make significant economic, community and charitable contributions to Australian society, yet they still experience widespread discrimination.

“Australia prides itself on being a diverse country, where equality and opportunity are afforded to all. If we are to live up to these values, urgent national attention is required to improve social cohesion. Supporting and including diverse communities enriches the whole country.”

Commissioner Tan said the report underlines the need for a National Anti-Racism Framework and clear goals and commitments on tackling racism.

“It’s not enough to simply condemn racism. We need a coordinated strategy that works on many fronts to actively counter racism at the various levels that it occurs,” Commissioner Tan said.

The report details nine solutions that Australian Muslims have identified to help improve social harmony with the broader community and increase cultural acceptance.

These include stronger support from Australian community and political leaders, improved media representation, public awareness education, and better implementation of existing initiatives. 

The report’s findings are based on a national, representative survey of more than 1000 Australian Muslims, and extensive consultations with community members and leaders across Australia.

The report examines the Muslim community’s concerns and priorities in the wake of the tragic Christchurch mosque attack. It includes many examples of social harmony and cultural acceptance, but these are offset by experiences of hate, violence and negative public commentary.

Visit the Commission’s website to download a copy of the report.

Commissioner Tan released a concept paper detailing key components that need to be included in the Framework and will soon commence a series of roundtables with peak anti-racism organisations to progress the plan. 

The plan was launched ahead of the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, also known in Australia as Harmony Day, which occurs this Sunday.

Commissioner Tan said: “Racism is an economic, social and national security threat to Australia, and we need to treat it as such. Too many Australians are regularly the targets of racism.

“It is time we dealt with the scourge of racism in the same way we deal with the scourge of domestic violence, or the scourge of child abuse. On those issues we have longstanding national frameworks, signed onto by all governments with three-year action plans. 

“I am calling on the Federal Government to engage with this process of establishing a National Anti-Racism Framework, to actively support its development, and to commit to resourcing it appropriately.”

Australia has not had a national anti-racism strategy in place since 2018, and federal funding for that strategy ended in 2015. 

Since then, events including the Christchurch terrorist attack, the growth in nationalist extremism, and racism in relation to COVID-19 have highlighted the need for urgent action to address racism. 

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people continue to experience injustice and significant disadvantage. Although Australian governments have recognised the historical racism faced by First Nations people, far more work is needed to address ongoing issues. 

Commissioner Tan said: “The Black Lives Matter movement has focused community attention on issues of racial injustice, and there is now unprecedented community support to address these issues. Now is the time to implement a national framework dealing with racism.”

The Concept paper and the Commissioner’s full speech will be publicly available from March 17 on the Commission’s website at www.humanrights.gov.au. 

For advanced copies, see attached or contact media@humanrights.gov.au or on (02) 9284 9700. We can also provide video clips from the Commissioner’s speech. 

Hello everyone, wherever you are in Australia. I join you from the lands of the Bunurong Boon Wurrung and Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung peoples of the Eastern Kulin Nation. I pay my respect to their Elders past, present and emerging. 

Welcome to you and thank you for joining me on the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination – also known in Australia as Harmony Day. 

The International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination is observed annually on the day that police in Sharpeville, South Africa, opened fire and killed 69 people at a peaceful demonstration against apartheid in 1960.  

In 1979, the United Nations General Assembly decided that every year, commencing on 21 March, countries around the globe would engage in a week of solidarity with peoples struggling against racism and racial discrimination. 

We’ve seen many positive developments since 1966 when the day was first observed and since 1979 when the week was marked – the dismantling of apartheid among them.  
But of course, racism remains too prevalent around the globe. And today, we are facing a resurgence in racism. 

This has been painfully apparent over the past year. 

Today I call for all Australians to redouble our efforts to address racism in all its forms. If we are a country that values human rights and dignity, then we must seek to eliminate racism. 

The Black Lives Matter movement has highlighted injustices experienced by people from culturally diverse backgrounds and by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. 

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed ugly racism against people of Asian descent here in Australia. 

And ASIO and the AFP have repeatedly identified home grown terrorism and extremism as a significant threat to the national security of Australia. 

It is also now just over two years since the terrible events in Christchurch, New Zealand, where an Australian man murdered 51 people, and attempted to murder another 40 people. The New Zealand Royal Commission into that event described it as ‘deplorable and incomprehensible’.  

The report of that Royal Commission was released in late December 2020. I want to reflect on a key set of findings in the report, to which, as Australians, we must also pay regard.  
It said societies that become polarised around difference, are likely to see radicalised ideologies develop and flourish.  

It also said that efforts to build social cohesion contribute to preventing or countering extremism.

I will soon be launching a report of national consultations that I convened with Australia’s Muslim communities in the wake of the Christchurch attack. 

It will show that these communities, for all their resilience, experience significant unfavourable treatment and hatred.  

It is why the findings of the New Zealand inquiry deserve extensive reflection and consideration here in Australia too.  
 
I must also acknowledge that the ongoing impact of racism on our First Nations brothers and sisters has been recognised by Australian governments in ways that are unprecedented.  
There are currently treaty processes underway in 3 states and territories, where truth telling will be a central aspect. 

The design process for a national indigenous voice is built on recognition by the Australian Government that the absence of full participation of First Nations peoples in decision making that affects them, is a fundamental, systemic barrier that continues in Australia. 

This was also made clear in my colleague, June Oscar’s report of consultations with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and girls: Wiyi Yanu U Thangani. That report was released in December 2020 and I commend it to you. 

And, perhaps most significantly, a new National Agreement on Closing the Gap commenced last year. It acknowledges that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and their cultures have prevailed and endured despite too many experiencing entrenched disadvantage, political exclusion, intergenerational trauma, and ongoing institutional racism. 

The agreement sets out as a priority reform, the transformation of government organisations, which includes identifying and eliminating racism. 
 
Friends and colleagues, these issues I have raised indicate that we stand at an important moment in our nation’s development.  The challenges we face to maintain a peaceful, harmonious multicultural society are many. 

The opportunities we have before us to transform relations with Indigenous peoples and eliminate racism, for example, are substantial. We must deal with the challenges and grasp the opportunities. 

I wholeheartedly agree with Reconciliation Australia, as it states in its latest State of Reconciliation report, that we are at a tipping point, and as a nation we need to move from a space of ‘safe’ to ‘brave’ on issues affecting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. I would add the need to be ‘brave’ on all issues relating to racism and inclusion in Australia. 
Unfortunately, our current efforts are not enough to achieve this. 

Government efforts are fragmented, there are inconsistencies in approaches across jurisdictions, and significant gaps. Too many people are regularly the targets and victims of racism. 

And so today I am calling on the Australian Government to implement a National Framework on Racism and Social Cohesion. It is time that we looked at the scourge of racism in the same way that we look at the scourge of domestic violence, or the scourge of child abuse. 

On those issues we have in place longstanding national frameworks, signed onto by all governments in Australia, with 3-year action plans to target priority issues and make serious headway in addressing them. 

Let me be clear: racism is a significant economic, social and national security threat to Australia. It is time we treated it as such. 

We need a new approach to combatting racism – one that is more cohesive across government, that builds community partnerships to prevent racism from flourishing, and one that is smarter and more effective: 
 
Smarter because it is informed by evidence of the experiences of communities, by emerging international trends, with a focus on prevention strategies, and because we measure how well our existing approaches are actually doing.  

And smarter because it has a place for affected communities in designing anti-racism initiatives, and because it focuses on supporting people to stand up to racism wherever they see it. 
 
In my capacity as Race Discrimination Commissioner, I will shortly commence a series of national conversations about developing this proposed national framework. 

The task of envisaging what should be in a framework cannot be left to government alone. Today I have released a concept paper on the key components of this new national approach.  
 I see eight priority national outcomes that all Australian governments should commit to address. They are as follows: 

1. Understanding the nature, prevalence, and incidence of racism in Australia, 
2. An effective legal framework to protect people from racial discrimination and racial hatred, 
3. Commitment from all governments to eradicating racism and racial discrimination through their actions, 
4. National anti-racism campaigns to build community understanding of racism and how to counter it, 
5. Commitment from all sectors of Australian society to countering racism, and the formation of community partnerships, 
6. Commitment from all sectors of Australian society towards adequate representation and participation of culturally diverse communities in all areas of public life, 
7. Commitment from Australian governments to address racial inequality, with the adoption of specific targets and measures to address it, 
8. Complimentary measures to strengthen multiculturalism, social inclusion, and Indigenous reconciliation. 

 
Ultimately, addressing racism is a responsibility for all of us. It is not exclusively the domain of government, nor of any one sector of the community.  My approach will be to build consensus on the need for such a framework and the measures it sets out. The community should embrace the need for change as much as government should.  

To that end, in addition to a series of consultations on this draft framework over the coming months, I will also be convening specific activities to focus on significant issues of racial discrimination in the community. 

In the coming weeks, I will convene a national roundtable on spectator racism at professional sporting events. Major sporting codes have expressed zero tolerance for racism at their events.  The roundtable will look at practical guidance to prevent racism in the stands, and to combat it when it does occur. This is an example of the different types of focus we will need to take if we are to successfully stamp out racism in Australia. 

So, on this International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, it is a time for us to recommit ourselves to eliminating the scourge of racism in our community. And that is why I am calling for a significant stepping up by government and others of our efforts. 

Please visit the Human Rights Commission’s website for further information and I look forward to engaging with you on the development of a national framework on combatting racism, over the coming period. 

Thank you. 

In the months, weeks, days leading up to this January 26, I’ve been thinking a lot about what it means to belong to a place, a country and to the culture of a nation. I’ve thought about how a collective belonging can cause us to feel euphoric in our connection to place and one another. I’ve thought of how that feeling has the power to bring us closer together, to see beyond the tensions and fear of difference, and at its strongest can unite us in shared ideals and common purpose.

So, I ask myself, can January 26 ever be the day that Australians, all Australians, unite and rejoice in our sense of collective belonging?

I want to celebrate being Australian and I want to celebrate our remarkable Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander civilisation. Because celebrating our living culture and heritage should, of course, be fundamental to Australian identity. But every year I brace myself for the 26th knowing that it is not the day we can do this.

It will always hold too much living pain and trauma for our peoples. It is historically tied to the structural inequalities and harms of the present and that is a truth that the 26th will never extinguish. But in the denial of this history that is so blatant on that day it makes the wounds worse.

Do I believe it is possible to find another day that reflects the spirit of Australia? Absolutely I do. We have all felt those moments, where there is a simultaneous rush of unity amongst millions of us. These are glimpses of what Australia could be—in 1967 when Australians stood up for us to be counted; when we finally achieved marriage equality and partied into the night; and those images from the past before I was born of Australians dancing in city streets at the end of the second world war. Most of all, I felt it, when Cathy Freeman lit the Olympic flame and won the race.

I want to feel that joy that Cathy sparked on a day that actually represents us all. And I believe now more than ever that symbols do matter in taking us on a journey where we can unite in truth without feeling threatened. Symbols can, and should, reflect the best of who we are and hold us true to our ideals. In the hardest of times, they can remind us not to give up, and to be who we want to become.

When we are honest with ourselves, whoever we are, do we truly believe that our Australian symbols—the day, the flag and the anthem—achieve this for us? I know there is much more to Australia, even in the promise of what Australia can become, than what is captured in our current emblems.

At this time in history, where the mounting global challenges we face—pandemics, climate change and poverty—pose such cataclysmic threats, the need to unite, within and across nations, is urgent. As COVID swept the globe it rapidly exposed the fragility of divided nations—where inequalities and injustices have taken root and grown within the deep fault lines of systemic racism and all forms of discrimination, pushing peoples and communities ever further apart. Australia may not have felt the full force of COVID, but it is far from immune to these entrenched underlying issues.

It seems cliched to say that when a large-scale crisis hits, it can be the catalyst to unite us. Still, over the last year we’ve all experienced the support of neighbours, the emergence of communities of care and how Black Lives Matter protesters—so many from such different walks of life—have reached out for each other, longing for the type of connection that can end the brutality that erupts from disunity.

It is not that our current turmoil is any kind of solution to injustice. It has brought unimaginable grief and in so many cases intensified political polarisation. It is why the world is calling out to heal old and open wounds and mend division. And sometimes it is only within crisis that we can see clearly the acts of compassion and inclusivity, grounded in our desire for tolerance, equality and justice that show us who we want to be, which hold the potential for change.

But it takes courage, hard work and commitment to grab and act on that potential, knowing it can set us on a better course. Australia has done this before in its post-war reconstruction, in helping to end South African Apartheid and often becoming one of the first signatories on global human rights treaties. In these moments ideals and symbols can be forged that truly reflect national spirit.

So today I ask that we rekindle that spirit of courage and leadership and consider why the date, the flag and anthem need to change as part of our journey of national healing and unity. Symbols alone won’t bring the changes we need, but they can be the vehicle to confront the injustices and inequalities, with their structural causes so knitted into the history represented by January 26.

When I think of the spirit of my fellow Australians, I know it is only a matter of time before we embark on an inclusive and respectful conversation about who we really are as a nation and the symbols we need to carry us into the future where we have the maturity to accept our history and truly live by the values we treasure.