Australia’s race discrimination commissioner has warned the debate over foreign influence is "threatening to spill over into a general suspicion of Chinese-Australians", arguing "there are signs we are flirting with danger".
Dr Tim Soutphommasane used a speech in Sydney on Tuesday to sound the alarm on "further signs of racism becoming normalised within mainstream media and public discourse".
He said members of the Chinese-Australian community have expressed concern with him about the current debate on Chinese interference in Australian political and other institutions.
“There are signs we are flirting with danger,” Dr Soutphommasane said at the Australian Human Rights Commission's annual forum on the state of racial tolerance and community harmony.
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"Just consider how some national security hawks here now suggest that expressing concerns about anti-Chinese racism amounts to aiding the propaganda agenda of the Chinese Communist party.
“We are now at the point where some are conditioning us to accept that anti-Chinese sentiment may just be collateral damage we must accept in a new cold war.
“Given there are 1.2 million Australians who have Chinese ancestry, the scale of such potential damage would be significant.”
Dr Soutphommasane, whose five-year term as commissioner ends in August, also pushed back at recent commentary that his position should be abolished.
He said that Australia has a history of racism - and it's still prevalent. In 2017, he said, 20 per cent of Australians revealed they'd experienced discrimination during the previous 12 months.
Last month, Queensland Liberal senator Ian Macdonald questioned whether racism existed in Australia, saying there were only "isolated aspects of racism in Australia".
"Racism exists and it diminishes our society. It is frustrating to see so much energy being spent on denying and deflecting racism. We should be spending that energy fighting prejudice and promoting equality," Dr Soutphommasane said on Tuesday.
"Being direct about fighting racism doesn’t sit well with some people. That’s perhaps one reason why some have suggested that the office of Race Discrimination Commissioner be renamed or redefined – that it should be called the Community Relations Commissioner, or something similar. It has been suggested that the work of a Race Discrimination Commissioner is divisive.
He also said the position of race discrimination commissioner can only be abolished or rebadged by changing the underpinning legislation.
“If there is such another attempt, fair-minded Australians, and ethnic and Indigenous communities, must be ready to stand up – to stand up as they did in 2013 and 2014, to stand up as they did again in 2016 and 2017," he said.
