Racism is costing Australia: commissioner

24 Aug 2012, 6:45 pm   -   Source: AAP
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A national strategy to help stamp out racism has been launched in Melbourne, as racism is taking a toll on communities, the race discrimination commissioner says.

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Racism is costing Australia and taking a toll on communities, the race discrimination commissioner says.

A national strategy to help stamp out racism was launched in Melbourne on Friday.

Federal race discrimination commissioner Dr Helen Szoke said racism not only exists in Australia, but costs the country "financially and culturally".

"We're going to have a go at identifying racism," Dr Szoke told the launch on Friday.

"We're going to make the point that racism can take a real toll on people's lives and communities."

The strategy was launched on behalf of the Australian Human Rights Commission and is backed by a campaign, "Racism stops with me".

Federal Multicultural Affairs Minister Kate Lundy said the strategy was about encouraging people to challenge racism and put an end to discrimination.

"Racism discounts the contribution thousands of migrants have made to our nation," Senator Lundy said.

Watch the interview with Dr Helen Szoke on YouTube:

Racism

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Your Comments

End unwelcome excessive immigration to Australia

Tony B - from West Heid Vic, 4 months ago

The solution to racism is to end our unwelcome immigration rates. As we head towards a global population blow-out of 9 billion, plus climate change and shortages of natural resources, an economy based on perpetual population growth, without a target, will exacerbate the problems we have now with congestion, costs of living and our environment. "Racism" will be the result of unwelcome high immigration rates, and unwelcome globalization to Australia. We need to protect our living standards.

Re: 'So many "isms"'

CK - from Perth, 9 months ago

Mike M - Just because we do classify people and have apprehensions about people different to us, does not mean that we have to react negatively on these feelings. A person can be undesirable in a community regardless of race, gender, age, sexual orientation or identity. You may have a suspicion about someone different to you for the above reasons, but until they do something that affects you personally, who are you to judge?

Time for unity

Millicent - from Ivanhoe, Melbourne, 9 months ago

As an "immigration nation" we have built up our economy and nation to where we are today, but the model of the past can't always be applied perpetually to now and the future. While some cultural/ethnic diversity is stimulating and broadening, once immigration remains too high, mainstream Australians become locked out, disadvantaged, and this causes racial tensions. It's time for unity, not more growth and multiculturalism should be wound down to consolidate our nation.

Populatin stability - the solution to unity

VivKay - from Heidelberg, Melbourne, 9 months ago

It's amazing that we are not more "racist" than we are. High immigration and the multicultural policies in Australia that support it is causing many Australians to be displaced. Living is getting harder, and more expensive due to high population growth. The open door policy to high immigration means that many Australians are being displaced. Once we have population stability, we can appreciate diversity and this would remove much of our population pressure.

So many " isms "

Mike M - from Sydney, 9 months ago

Racism, sexism, ageism etc etc. Talk about spitting into the wind. Apparently the human mind copes with vast amounts of data through a process of "classifictaion" - race, gender, age etc being broad classes under which we group people as we assimilate and process information about them. That is not going to change anytime soon - as in never. Coupled with that we have an inbuilt instinctive distrust of anything different to ourselves. These two facts about the human psyche must be considered.

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