The Pauline Hanson verdict is welcome but only cultural change will remove Australia’s stain of racism
OPINION | Democratic Freedoms
People calling out racism have usually faced more repercussions than those spreading fear, hatred and division
By Arif Hussein
Human Rights Law Centre
For too long, racism has been able to fester in Australia’s public discourse. It is a stubborn stain on our country, where the people calling out racism have usually faced more repercussions than the people spreading fear, hatred and division.
Seldom have the perpetrators of racism been held accountable.
Friday’s ruling by the federal court that Senator Pauline Hanson racially vilified Senator Mehreen Faruqi when Senator Hanson told Senator Faruqi to “piss off back to Pakistan” on X is welcome and long overdue, especially for many people in the Australian Muslim community and other marginalised groups who have been racially vilified by Senator Hanson.
Senator Hanson has a long history of hateful and discriminatory speech, including inflammatory attempts in parliament to ban the burqa, wind back protection for transgender children and stoke anti-Asian hate.
Rather than being punished for these comments, Senator Hanson has been elected into local, state and federal parliaments. So it is not a surprise that it has taken decades for an Australian court to rule that what Senator Hanson has been saying is discriminatory.
Australia’s anti-discrimination laws provide a patchwork of inconsistent, inaccessible protection. Too often, they leave marginalised communities across Australia vulnerable to discrimination, hate speech and vilification.
Section 18C of the federal Racial Discrimination Act 1975 makes it unlawful for a person to offend, insult, humiliate or intimidate on the basis of race, colour or national or ethnic origin. But Muslim Australians have long felt that they are inadequately protected against discrimination, because 18C does not expressly mention religion, and Muslims are not considered a single ethnic or ethno-religious group, like Jews and Sikhs.
This lack of express protection has been exploited by far-right groups and individuals, who often proclaim that because Islam is not a race, they cannot be racist.
This lack of protection was also clear in the decision of the federal court in Friday’s verdict. In considering whether Senator Hanson’s tweet contravened section 18C, the court considered the nature of Senator Hanson’s long history of anti-Muslim rhetoric, and concluded that “Senator Hanson’s Anti-Muslim rhetoric is directed at Muslims as much because of their race, colour and immigration status as it is at anything about their religious beliefs.”
The decision by the federal court is welcome, but given the piecemeal and inconsistent nature of our anti-discrimination laws, it cannot be taken as an antidote to the long overdue work of consolidating and making consistent our federal anti-discrimination laws.
How can we expect those who experience racism in Australia every day to be protected, when it takes decades to gain a little justice against the worst perpetrators of racial discrimination?
Muslims and other groups who have experienced racial vilification and discrimination should be protected, able to live in Australia freely and proud to be who they are. That Hanson was ruled today to have discriminated against Faruqi and Muslims was unremarkable, given her a extensive history of anti-Muslim statements.
So how do we truly protect people from racial discrimination in this country?
Given the significant spike in incidents of Islamophobia, antisemitism and anti-Palestinian racism in Australia, since Hamas’ attack on Israel on 7 October 2023, the subsequent siege and bombardment of Gaza by Israel and now the growing conflict in Lebanon, the Albanese government must take this opportunity to strengthen human rights protection in our laws, including our right to live free from discrimination.
At a minimum section 18C should be amended to prohibit offending, insulting or humiliating on the basis of race, religious belief, sexual orientation, gender identity, and disability. More broadly the Albanese government should consolidate federal anti-discrimination laws into a single, uniform and modern Anti-Discrimination Act so that it is simple, consistent and deals with the intersecting nature of discrimination.
But beyond legal protection, it will take cultural change to rub the perverse stain of racism off this country.
Change in who we listen to, from perpetrators who spread fear and division , to people who unite us in solidarity.
Change in making reporting incidents of racism easier and more effective to hold perpetrators accountable. Change in a collective reckoning with the truth of Australia’s violent history towards Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
That is how we begin to counter the fear, hatred and racism which permeates through Australia. That is how we push equity, respect and justice forward. That is how we make Australia a place where every person is welcome and belongs.
Arif Hussein is in the Democratic Freedoms team at the Human Rights Law Centre. You can learn more about the team's work here.