This process has been informed by work happening within the Commission. This includes the
community solutions proposed in the Sharing the Stories of Australian Muslims project calling for
enhanced media regulation, legal protections at the intersection of racial and religious
discrimination, and for public education; and the Wiyi Yani U Thangani project, specifically the
recommendation for a national framework to respond to and heal the intergenerational trauma
experienced by First Nations women and girls. It also reflects the Commission’s approach in the
Free and Equal project calling for a proactive approach to protecting human rights, including by
modernising federal discrimination laws and the protection against racial discrimination, and
draws on wider Commission work on human rights and technology, and capacity building.
Relevant, significant, and complementary work is also taking place across governments. In this
initial scoping process, the Commission has also been informed by commitments under Closing
the Gap, State and Territory treaty and truth-telling processes, recommendations from the Uluru
Statement from the Heart for a Voice to Parliament, the development of a new National Plan to
Reduce Violence Against Women and their Children, including the interconnected Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander Action Plan and the National Framework for Protecting Australia’s Children.
The report findings connect with the 2022 Jobs and Skills Summit and current Australian
government policy regarding skilled migrants, refugees, asylum seekers, and temporary visa
holders as well as findings to date from the Disability Royal Commission.
Overview of the findings
During the framework scoping process, the Commission heard that a national anti-racism
framework would be pivotal to encouraging institutional change.
A National Anti-Racism Framework is a significant step towards achieving
racial equity in Australia for all, including Aboriginal people. The Department is
supportive of such a framework and sees it as a great opportunity for
institutional change. — submission from the Northern Territory Government,
Department of the Attorney-General and Justice, NARF project, May 2021 – April
2022
The Commission consistently heard that a framework and initiatives arising from it could only be
effective if the harms of settler colonisation experienced by First Nations peoples were
acknowledged. Project participants also urged that addressing the continuing impact of
colonisation on First Nations peoples is central to anti-racism efforts in Australia and that the
success of a framework initiative is predicated on recognising Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander peoples’ rights and their leadership in anti-racism initiatives.
The focus in this Report on the experiences of First Nations peoples as a threshold for anti-racist
action, recognises the inviolability of human rights. It recognises that these rights may not be
taken away at any time or infringed in any way and must be fully respected and defended. As
former Race Discrimination Commissioner and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice
Commissioner Professor Tom Calma AO has observed, this is a matter of the ‘inherent dignity
and the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family’.10
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