Multiculturalism and Anti-Racism

Principles

The Greens NSW believe:

1. Everyone has the right to be treated equally and to live without fear of racial violence, abuse and discrimination.

2. Universal human rights, including economic, social, civil, political and cultural rights are interdependent and indivisible.

3. Multiculturalism in Australia needs to be built on a recognition of the sovereignty of First Nations peoples.

4. Australia’s First Nations culture is the longest surviving culture in the world and the impact of colonisation and racism on First Nations peoples is intergenerational.

5. Cultural and linguistic diversity in NSW is our reality, and should be acknowledged and celebrated as such. Strengthening our multiculturalism will occur through the promotion of inclusive values and practice.

6. Everyone has the right to equitable participation in decision-making processes in Australian society and Australia’s cultural diversity should be represented in our social, economic and political institutions.

7. Governments at all levels, public institutions, non-government organisations and businesses should adopt policies and run programs that raise awareness of caste discrimination.

8. Colonisation means that political, institutional and economic power is unequally distributed based on race, with First Nations people experiencing systemic racism and disadvantage.

9. Since colonisation, systemic racism has had an intergenerational impact on immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers. We recognise the significant contribution to the strength of our community that these people bring.

10. Everyone has the right to equitable participation in decision-making processes in Australian society and Australia’s cultural diversity should be represented in our social, economic and political institutions.

11. Racism and discrimination is intersectional and causes direct harm to individuals and communities and negatively impacts social, political and economic participation especially amongst women, trans and non-binary persons.

12. Racism is an everyday reality for many people, and far-right extremism and white supremacist ideology is a growing threat in Australian society.

13. Anti-racism education in combination with other critical institutional-based anti-racism initiatives play important roles in combating racism and hate speech.

14. Governments at all levels must do more to prevent and eliminate discrimination including harassment, abuse, stigmatisation and vilification on the basis of language, race (including but not limited to caste), ethnicity, religion, sex, disability and visa status.

15. NSW should comply with the United Nations Declaration on Human Rights, the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, draft UN Principles and Guidelines for the Effective Elimination of Discrimination based on Work and Descent, and the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights.

16. The elimination of racism requires:

Meaningful, systemic reforms in legal, policing and justice systems;
Effective implementation of policy and programs;
Community attitudes and relationships that provide everyone with equal opportunity for representation and participation at all levels of government, regardless of their culture, ethnicity or dual citizenship.

17. Essential and public services should be available to all residents, refugees and asylum seekers regardless of visa status.

Aims

The Greens NSW aim to:

18. Resource Anti-Discrimination NSW appropriately to make the content of the NSW Anti-Discrimination Act 1977 more accessible and enforceable to reduce and eliminate discrimination, harassment, vilification and exploitation based on race (including but not limited to caste).

19. Advocate for caste discrimination and oppression to be specifically recognised as offences under Australian human rights law.

20. Encourage government representatives to engage with community leaders in order to identify existing and any new issues arising from racism (including but not limited to casteism) and to work collaboratively to resolve those issues on an ongoing basis.

21. Promote greater community awareness of the many ways in which racism (including but not limited to casteism) and oppression manifests in Australian workplaces, and advocate for the introduction of training programs for workplace managers and human resources staff to recognise that discrimination.

22. Cease government funding of organisations that promote hate speech and discrimination.

23. Encourage more reporting of racist incidents by calling for a national hate crime database and establishing accessible state-based crime reporting methods such as NSW BOCSAR .

24. Require consistent monitoring and reviewing of individual racist incidents and organisations that promote hate speech, racial hatred and racial discrimination, and ensuring problems are addressed adequately.

25. Ensure government and government-funded services and information are also delivered in languages other than English, through the employment of multilingual staff.

26. Properly resource free and accessible interpreting and translation services.

27. Foster equity in industrial and employment relationships to redress all forms of discrimination in the workplace (including visa status and caste discrimination) and ensure that immigrants’ skills and qualifications are recognised, and that migrant women in particular are given the opportunity to fully utilise their skills.

28. Ensure adequate funding and oversight for grants to ethnic community groups and other community groups that promote inter-cultural and intra-community understanding and which do not practise any forms of intersectional discrimination.

29. Require that educational institutions enrolling international students provide support services and housing, and are annually audited to prevent exploitation and ensure quality provision of services.

30. Ensure adequate, free and readily accessible English language courses for all, including appropriate English language support for children learning English as an additional language or dialect (EAL/D).

31. Support and promote First Nations languages as well as the languages of migration from early childhood right through to primary and high school education by providing opportunities for language maintenance and acquisition.

32. Ensure provision of education and training programs which promote an understanding of colonisation and white privilege to enable working towards First Nations social justice.

33. Recognise the International Day of Indigenous Peoples, International Day For the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, International Human Rights Day and foster stronger recognition of culturally significant days and events, including other events of significance to marginalised communities.

34. Recognise January 26th as Invasion Day and a day of mourning for First Nations peoples and the need to change the date of Australia Day.

35. Promote positive, non-stereotyped images of First Nations peoples, people of colour and CALD in all media and other cultural activities, and support media that focuses on diverse voices such as SBS, NITV and other smaller media outlets.

36. Ensure all emergency relief measures, concessions, and payments are fully available to all residents of NSW, irrespective of visa status.

37. Introduce a NSW Human Rights Act or Charter.

38. Support amendments to the Multicultural Policies and Services Program framework developed by Multicultural NSW to include mandatory anti-racism (including but not limited to anti-casteism), and oppression awareness training and reporting in all government agencies.

References