Motion: Government must name and challenge racism
I move:
That the Senate—
(a) notes that:
(i) on 15 March 2019 an Australian man walked into two mosques in Christchurch, Aotearoa New Zealand, and killed 51 innocent Muslims,
(ii) the New Zealand Royal Commission inquiry into the attacks confirmed that the massacre was driven by an 'extreme right-wing Islamophobic ideology',
(iii) two years on, Australia has grappled neither with being the country that raised the Christchurch killer, nor with the resurgent threat of far- right extremism and neo-fascism,
(iv) this month marks 30 years since the publication of the 1991 landmark National Inquiry into Racist Violence, which found that 'racist attitudes and practices (conscious and unconscious) pervade our institutions, both public and private', and that 'on the whole, public authorities do not respond effectively to reports of racist violence', and
(v) racism and Islamophobia continue to pervade our institutions in 2021, and public authorities have failed to stem the scourge of racist violence and hate crimes; and
(b) that the Senate acknowledges the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination on 21 March, and calls on the Australian Government to reject and challenge racism in all its forms.
