Inner West Council spends $280k on NSW first anti-racism strategy

A major Sydney council has been accused of obsessing over racism after it unveiled a six-figure “anti-racism strategy” involving “bespoke” training for staff and ratepayers to combat prejudice.

A major Sydney council has released a strategy featuring “bespoke anti-racism training” for bystanders, and grants to “alleviate the cultural load” of Indigenous Australian staffers – but opponents have labelled it vague, tokenistic and a waste of time.

The Inner West Council adopted the project in September to provide a “blueprint for how local government can act at the grassroots level to stop the spread of racial prejudice and to build social cohesion”.

Using a multi-pronged approach of “local leadership, empowering communities, building awareness and changing attitudes”, the end goal is to ensure “the lived experience of the people of the inner west is reflected in its development”.

According to the council’s website, that lived experience includes that of “Indigenous peoples and other negatively-racialised people,” along with “culturally and linguistically diverse communities who might not have lived experience of racism”.

Key features of the strategy include investing $120,000 toward an “evidence-based, bespoke” anti-racism training program, to be developed over two years with Western Sydney University.

A racism not welcome sign at King St Newtown. Picture: X

Council papers state the program would “train hundreds of local residents and council staff” equipping them with “practical skills and tools to confidently identify and respond to racist behaviours as a bystander”.

Another key aspect is $50,000 annually being allocated toward artists and community leaders from diverse backgrounds, to “showcase and develop their cultures”.

Other funding commitments include $15,000 toward “identifying and alleviating” the “cultural load” of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander staff, with the same amount allocated toward commemorating the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination on March 21.

Mayor Darcy Byrne says the strategy is a blueprint.

Meanwhile, a stocktake will be done of existing #RacismNotWelcome signs with a further 30 to be installed, along with three Aboriginal Survival Memorials to be erected “as culturally safe spaces”.

The strategy was put on exhibition in June, with an online survey finding only 40 per cent of respondents supported the plan.

One respondent stated the “vague” and “tokenistic” strategy needed “a lot more work,” while another disagreed racism was a local government issue.

At least two submissions said it was a “complete waste of resources, money, time and effort.”

Meanwhile, another critic accused the council of “obsessing with racism”.

“The best way to fight against racism is to stop obsessing over it, you are making it a thing by constantly bringing it up all the time,” the submission said.

On Wednesday, Inner West Mayor Darcy Byrne said the strategy was “a practical plan” to combat prejudice, describing the region as the “birthplace of multiculturalism”.

“The inner west is the birthplace of Australian multiculturalism so to see the increase in anti-Semitic vandalism and attacks in our community in recent months has been shocking,” he said.

A Newtown synagogue was vandalised last month.

Cr Byrne also pointed to other instances of racial vilification which has flared up toward other cultural groups in recent years.

“While the anti-Semitic attacks as of late have been shocking and unprecedented, these instances of racist vilification flare up fairly regularly,” he said.

“A lot of Chinese people have reported during Covid experiencing an uptick in abuse and threats, while throughout the referendum the vilification of Indigenous people increased.

“What we want to do is set up a framework so local government areas can stamp out forms of intimidation when they start to arise.”

It comes as Cr Byrne, along with two other high profile mayors – Ned Mannoun of Liverpool and Will Nemesh of Waverley – will host a Mayoral roundtable in response to Sydney’s unravelling social cohesion.

At least 25 Sydney mayors will attend the conference on Thursday, when they will be invited to sign a bipartisan multi-faith statement condemning hatred and extremism, and calling for “urgent action” from the state and federal governments.

Originally published as Inner West Council spends $280k on NSW first anti-racism strategy