Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email<\/a><\/p>\nThe Greens deputy leader, Mehreen Faruqi, said the documents showed a \u201cclear and troubling pattern\u201d that the government was commissioning and receiving reports but failing to act on them.<\/p>\n
\u201cTime after time, the race discrimination commissioner has urged this government to act, and every time his pleas have been ignored,\u201d Faruqi told Guardian Australia.<\/p>\n
The framework makes 63 recommendations, including establishing a national anti-racism taskforce, creating a standalone Human Rights Act, and implementing a positive duty to eliminate racism across employers and businesses, the health and housing sectors. Labor introduced a similar duty to eliminate sexual harassment in 2022.<\/p>\n
In a letter to the minister on 1 September following anti-immigration rallies that targeted the Indian community, Sivaraman wrote, \u201cUntil we address the structural roots of racism and reform our systems and institutions, this racist bile will continue to spill onto our streets, making all of us less safe.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rowland responded three weeks later that the government was still \u201ccarefully considering\u201d the framework recommendations as well as the special envoys\u2019 reports. The royal commission is due to hand down its findings in December.<\/p>\n
Some in Labor have been openly frustrated by the government\u2019s lack of response to the framework, including former cabinet minister Ed Husic, who was the first Muslim frontbencher, and has repeatedly called on his party to tackle the issue.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have an issue with racism in this country,\u201d he told the Rational Fear podcast in March. \u201cThe anti racism framework, we haven\u2019t responded to that, we\u2019ve got to get working on it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Other Labor MPs privately told Guardian Australia they wanted to see a formal response to the framework to show the government was taking racism seriously.<\/p>\n
One MP said the commissioner was \u201cowed\u201d a response and questioned whether the royal commission would be able to address racism broadly.<\/p>\n
But others in Labor said the issue had drastically changed in the last year and the framework was no longer the best policy pathway.<\/p>\n
Islamic and Jewish groups have also called on Labor to address the framework.<\/p>\n
Imam Shadi Alsuleiman, the president of the Australian National Imams Council, said \u201cwe need implementation\u201d of the plan.<\/p>\n
Dr Rateb Jneid, the president of the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils, urged the government to introduce a positive duty to prevent racism.<\/p>\n
\u201cGiven the rise in Islamophobia since its launch, it is disappointing that the government has not formally responded and ministers are still describing it as guidance for future work,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Bart Shteinman, executive officer of the progressive advocacy group Jewish Council of Australia, called the framework the most \u201ccomprehensive, evidence-based and consulted on\u201d approach to tackling antisemitism and racism and said the JCA would encourage the royal commission to endorse it.<\/p>\n
Peter Doukas, chair of the Federation of Ethnic Communities Council of Australia, said implementing the framework was a \u201cno brainer\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is a social cohesion crisis going on, possibly it will get worse, and we want to work to \u2026 combat the growth of insular, unhistorical policies and views.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Federal Labor has been accused of dragging its feet on a plan to combat systemic racism in Australia,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":618119,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":{"0":"post-618118","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-australia","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/618118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=618118"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/618118\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/618119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=618118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=618118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=618118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}