Minns: Race Commissioner’s Australia Day stance is ‘bonkers’
Australia’s $400,000-a-year Race Discrimination Commissioner Giridharan Sivaraman says celebrating Australia Day “compounds racism”. The NSW Premier says that’s “just crazy”.
NSW
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Chris Minns has slammed anti-Australia Day comments from the country’s Race Discrimination Commissioner, describing the views of Giridharan Sivaraman as “bonkers.”
It has been discovered Mr Sivaraman, who is on a salary of $400,000 per year, said in October: “Australia Day is Invasion Day for our First Nations brothers and sisters, and is a day of mourning in many ways and not a day to be celebrated. And to not acknowledge that just compounds racism.”
Speaking to 2GB’s Ben Fordham, the Premier claimed the stance was “absolutely crazy.”
“Just bonkers … the thing about Australia Day and national days is that they are incredibly important for countries. You have to think about what unites everybody — different backgrounds, different races, different religions. If you live in a country you need national days to actually pull the community together. If you start jettisoning things like Anzac Day or Australia Day or start to diminish them … what’s going to actually pull people together?” Mr Minns stated.
Mr Sivaraman was appointed to the Australian Human Rights Commission position in February last year after being selected by Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus from a shortlist of candidates. At the time, Mr Dreyfus described him as a “great asset.”
Approached for comment on Thursday, Mr Dreyfus told The Daily Telegraph: “As the Prime Minister has said on many, many occasions, the government has no plans to change the date of Australia Day. The Australian Human Rights Commission is an independent statutory authority.”
Mr Sivaraman has made a range of controversial statements since being appointed to the role – including claiming the country’s “systems and institutions are inherently affected by racism” which continue to “maintain white power and privilege”
In a one-hour video published in August last year, titled “How to be an anti-racist in the workplace”, he outlined how he believed “structural racism” existed in Australian workplaces.
“Do overseas qualifications mean people of racialised backgrounds get lower salaries than their white counterparts? Can languages other than English be spoken in the workplace?” he ponders in the video.
The role of Race Discrimination Commissioner has existed since the 1980s and attracts a $400,000 salary.
In November, Mr Sivaraman released a National Anti-Racism Framework as part of an initiative which cost taxpayers $7.5m. It contained 63 anti-racism recommendations, including changes to the school curriculum, mandatory workplace training and an external audit into potential police misconduct. The findings are being considered by the Albanese government.
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