A new Victorian bill aims to create two new criminal offences over vilification, while a new anti-racism strategy has been launched. Photo: File.
The Victorian Government has launched the state’s first ever anti-racism strategy, describing it as a long-term plan to prevent and address racism and discrimination in Victoria.
Minister for Multicultural Affairs Ingrid Stitt and Minister for Treaty and First Peoples Natalie Hutchins launched the plan on Thursday (27 November) saying their aim was to keep Victoria free of hate.
“Whoever you are, whatever you believe in, wherever you’re from, you deserve to be safe in our state – free of hate,” they said in a statement.
“For too many Victorians, racism remains an everyday reality – whether it’s acts of discrimination, or systemic bias ingrained in our institutions.”
The strategy is a five-year plan developed in consultation with more than 670 Victorians including the Anti-Racism Taskforce, First Nations peoples and multicultural organisations.
It outlines four key goals, and the actions that will be taken to address them including challenging racist attitudes in the community.
Those priority goals are:
- Racist attitudes, behaviours and beliefs are recognised, challenged and rejected
- Government services and workplaces are safe, accessible and non-discriminatory
- Racism and discrimination are no longer barriers to participation, progress, safety and success across all sectors
- People subjected to racism receive appropriate and culturally safe services and supports.
“Victorians come from hundreds of different backgrounds – that’s what makes us great,” Ms Stitt said.
“We are taking action to make sure every Victorian feels safe, every Victorian is respected, and every Victorian can thrive in our state.
“Standing up to racism and discrimination is everyone’s responsibility and it is only by working together that we can build a truly inclusive and equitable society.”
Ms Hutchins said the Anti-Racism Taskforce would continue to provide its members’ expertise and lived experience to contribute to the development of a monitoring and evaluation framework.
“We will walk side by side with First Peoples to tackle racism as we move forward on the path to truth-telling and Treaty,” she said.
To support the strategy, the State Government will deliver $4 million from the Victorian Budget 2024/25 through the Local Anti-Racism Grants Initiative, a new campaign to address racism in community sport, development of an anti-racism ‘tick’ accreditation scheme, and funding to reduce discrimination in policing.
The Local Anti-Racism Grants Initiative strengthens anti-racism support networks in local communities and will provide funding of up to $150,000 for organisations to deliver programs and services that drive anti-racist behaviour. Applications for this initiative are open now.
On Tuesday, Premier Jacinta Allan and Attorney-General Jaclyn Symes joined community and multicultural leaders to announce the Justice Legislation Amendment (Anti-vilification and Social Cohesion) Bill 2024.
That bill aims to protect more Victorians from vilification and introduce new criminal offences for serious vilification, such as inciting hatred or threatening physical harm against someone because of who they are or what faith they follow.
It also aims to strengthen existing civil protections against vilification and provide more options for people to seek remedy and protect the right to free speech and religion by creating a new defence for political expression and recognising exceptions for religious and artistic purposes.
The reforms will create two criminal offences to respond to serious vilification:
- It will be an offence to incite hatred, serious contempt, revulsion or severe ridicule against another person or group based on their protected attribute
- It will be an offence to threaten physical harm or property damage against a person or a group based on their protected attribute.
“The Victoria I love is a place where we come from hundreds of different backgrounds, but we are one community – Victoria united,” the Premier said.
“Everyone deserves to be safe in our state, free of hate.
“These strong new laws support social cohesion by making it easier for police to charge anyone found to be inciting violence against specific groups or individuals on the basis of their race, religion and more.
“It also expands protections for more Victorians, because it should absolutely be against the law to vilify someone for being a woman or for being in a wheelchair. This is simply about fairness for all.”
Wednesday also saw Australia’s Race Discrimination Commissioner Giridharan Sivaraman use an event at Australian Parliament House to launch a national plan for eliminating racism across Australia.
With 63 recommendations for a whole of society approach to the issue, the plan proposes reforms across Australia’s legal, justice, health, education, media and arts sectors.
