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NSW A-G launches new anti-racism campaign
A multimedia campaign launched this week will target hate and xenophobia, including online abuse and in the community during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Tony Zhang
Attorney-General Mark Speakman said there were alarming reports the pandemic is fuelling racist abuse towards some members of the community.
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“Stopping the spread of COVID-19 has required every member of the community to make enormous sacrifices. But the challenges we’ve faced are never an excuse for racism, scapegoating or scaremongering,” Mr Speakman said.
“We need to work together to combat abusive and violent behaviour that discriminates against cultural or religious groups as well as other sections of our community.”
The Stop Public Threats campaign will help victim-survivors and the community understand their legal rights, and ensure that threats of violence are reported to police for investigation.
Mr Speakman said he hoped it would encourage people to report threats of race-related violence to the police for investigation. Offenders can face up to three years in prison, he added.
“A criminal law was introduced in 2018 in NSW. It makes it a criminal offence to threaten or incite violence on the basis of someone’s race, religion, gender sexuality,” he said.
It was revealed that the Australian Human Rights Commission had recorded a spike in racial discrimination since the outbreak of coronavirus.
In February, the commission received the highest number of racial discrimination complaints this financial year.
While this dropped to within the usual range during the lockdown months of March and April, around a third of complaints were COVID-19-related.
Acting Minister for Multiculturalism Geoff Lee said the campaign is a valuable resource for diverse communities across NSW.
“Racial abuse and racial vilification in all their ugly forms are never acceptable and go against everything we stand for in NSW. No member of our community should ever feel attacked due to their cultural or religious background,” Mr Lee said.
“This campaign will empower diverse communities with information about how to respond to and report racially motivated incidents.”
The campaign includes a podcast, website, videos, posters and social media materials for legal professionals and the community to send a clear message that physical and verbal abuse is completely unacceptable.
It builds on the NSW government’s introduction of tough penalties of up to three years’ imprisonment for anyone that publicly incites violence against someone on the grounds of race, religion, sexual orientation, gender, intersex or HIV/AIDS status.
