Victoria’s first Anti-Racism Strategy
CMY welcomes the release of Victoria’s Anti-Racism Strategy 2024-2029, which recognises the significant and lasting impacts of racism on our community, and the urgent need for action. It represents a five-year plan to tackle racism and discrimination in Victoria, and build a safer, fairer and more inclusive state.
“This Strategy outlines our commitment to dismantling racism at every level,” Minister for Multicultural Affairs Ingrid Stitt MP announced at the launch on Wednesday.
The Strategy was developed through consultations with more than 670 Victorians including the Anti-Racism Taskforce, First Peoples and multicultural organisations. It outlines four overarching, long-term goals and actions that will be taken for each, acknowledging the need to address racism at interpersonal, institutional and structural levels.
We believe the provision of clear definitions and use of language and concepts to describe anti-racism practice is crucial to the community building a consistent approach to understanding and tackling racism in Victoria.
The Strategy acknowledges the widespread and enduring effects of colonisation, and the ways that institutional racism has always impacted First Nations peoples. We hope this Strategy contributes to meaningful change for First Nations communities in health, education and justice in Australia.
The launch of the Strategy coincides with the proposed changes to anti-vilification legislation in Victoria, introduced to Parliament on Tuesday.
We welcome the Victorian Government’s focus on:
- Reducing racism and discrimination in policing,
- Strengthening appropriate and culturally safe supports for people who experience racism and discrimination,
- Building the capability of organisations to be anti-racist,
- Building the capability of complaint and oversight bodies to better respond to reports of racism, and
- Delivering anti-racism campaigns in sport to drive behaviour change.
It is positive that funding has been provided to Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission (VEOHRC) to strengthen the regulatory and enforcement powers so that people can make complaints safely.
We are encouraged to see the Government supporting community driven anti-racism initiatives at a local level and prioritising anti-racism campaigns in sport to drive behaviour change. CMSport, an initiative of CMY, is already working in this space – partnering with Koorie Heritage Trust to deliver a program focused on reducing racism in community sport. We hope the Government’s commitment is sustained and extends to anti-racism work at a club level and to sporting bodies, to ensure far-reaching attitude change.
We are disappointed that education initiatives are not being prioritised and addressed immediately, but are marked as a future priority area. While schools have been identified as a key site where racism is experienced and perpetuated at both a systemic and individual level, there is no funding allocated to enact the change that is needed now.
CMY’s Schools Standing Up to Racism has been identified as good practice. We have seen a growing need from schools for further support in tackling racism. We urge the Government to invest in models that are known to work and deliver essential support and services.
We applaud the Government’s ambitious approach to anti-racism, and we are hopeful that the Government is also committed to a long-term strategic response and directs meaningful funding to achieve impactful results.