Topic
The Racial Discrimination Act
Instructions
Reading is:
Biddle, N., Howlett, M., Hunter, B. & Parides, Y. 2013, ‘Labour Market and other Discrimination Facing Indigenous Australians’, Australian Journal of Labour Economics,16(1), 91-113.
To support the reading you can also watch:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Race Discrimination in the workplace (3:20)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Would Changes to Australia’s Racial Discrimination Act Impact Racial Equality? (6:09)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Racial Discrimination? Know your rights (4 mins)
The recent push to amend parts of the Racial Discrimination Act, gave rise to debate around freedom of speech vs the right to protection from racism in Australia. What were some of the issues and how might the proposed amendments have impacted on workplace protections had they been successful?
Answer preview
The main amendment that was proposed was on the Section 18 (c) of the Racial Discrimination Act, which prohibits individuals from acting or conducting themselves in a discriminatory manner against any individual based on the race, religion, or creed (Stop Job Discrimination., 2015). The proposition to the change the act was rejected because the same would have infringed on individuals right to freedom of speech. However, a question was raised as to whether not changing the stipulation of the section would infringe on the right to protect the people of Australia against racism (Australia Human Rights Commission., 2017).
Word count: 440