Don’t use the ‘R’ word The need to be explicit about racism was nominated as a challenge by some participants. The lack of explicit use of the word ‘racism’ was raised by many federal participants as reflecting historic approaches to addressing colonialism and structural racism in Australia. Many spoke of a ‘denial culture’ about privilege, the enduring effects of colonialism on First Nations and some other communities, and of attitudes more broadly that allow structural or institutional racism to continue. In a sense, the inability of the nation to have a mature discussion about racism, discrimination and inequity undermines the often very good work undertaken or supported by government. At a minimum, this creates confusion and can stymie progress: ‘Because racism is a dirty word. We can't actually say it. We can't say it because people get offended. Okay, because, you know, if we start talking about racism, again, my experience has been that they go oh, no, no, no baby, we should say discrimination, but I'm sorry. Racism and discrimination are two separate things. Like you can be discriminated against based on your race. Okay, but discrimination and discrimination laws are really quite different to out and out racism. Okay. And then let's not have a conversation about systemic racism, because then people get oh my god, please, like me, I'm not racist.’21 The October 2023 Voice Referendum has sharpened these concerns for some: ‘There is a great deal of denial still in the country about privilege, about the enduring effects of colonialism on say, Indigenous Australians. And, and the denial of racism more broadly. On the latter, it's not as profound as it used to be, there's more acknowledgement of that. Acknowledgement of privilege is less strong. But I think the Voice referendum shows us more than anything that the extent of community understanding, the acceptance of the enduring disadvantage from colonialism for Indigenous Australians, is nowhere near well enough accepted. And that fundamentally was what was able to be leveraged to defeat the Referendum. And fundamentally it is what will defeat anti-racism as well unless it can be challenged. And so challenging privilege and a denial of privilege and denial of racism is a pretty important barrier for us.22 However, one stakeholder from a non-government organisation disagreed about using the term ‘racism’ in work aimed at behaviour shifting: 21 Federal stakeholder interview (Departmental) 22 Federal stakeholder interview (Academia) 16