It looks like Australian school kids understand racism better than the Human Rights Commission | David Penberthy

Australia’s Human Rights Commission has revealed our next target in the war on racism – small children celebrating diversity, writes David Penberthy.

It has come to the attention of Australia’s peak human rights body that young children are taking part in an annual celebration where they wear national dress, eat traditional food and parade happily around the schoolyard hand in hand.

Apparently there is something sinister about it.

What the rest of us know as Harmony Day is anything but harmonious, according to the Australian Human Rights Commission.

The AHRC believes that far from being an innocent celebration, Harmony Day is dangerous, vacuous nonsense which masks the true reality of racism.

Someone had better tell the kids that, all of whom in my experience really enjoy celebrating this day with their friends regardless of their colour, creed or religion.

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But the AHRC doesn’t just believe Harmony Day hides the truth about racism. It has even warned it may be “triggering”, to use that very right-on 2025 term, in that it can somehow cause distress for children from non-English speaking backgrounds.

If there is any evidence of this happening anyway and ever in Australia, I’m all ears.

This week’s attack by the AHRC is a classic example of how traditional left-wing orthodoxies on an issue such as race can part company so wildly with mainstream sentiment.

There has long been an intense dislike of Harmony Day among old traditional lefties for one simple ideological reason – it was John Howard’s idea.

Former Prime Minister of Australia John Howard preferred Harmony to IDERD and some people have never forgiven him. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Up until 1999, March 21 was known as International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.

The AHRC complains that the Howard government’s 1999 decision to rename IDERD as Harmony Day has “turned the day from a protest against racial discrimination into a celebration’’.

Here’s a tactical question for the people at the Human Rights Commission – is protest necessarily the more effective method to tackle racial discrimination?

Maybe celebration can work just as well, too? Indeed, maybe celebration can be more effective than protest?

I reckon a schoolyard filled with happy children celebrating their diversity is more effective than, say, lining them up on the main road outside the school shouting “What do we want/no racism/when do we want it/now!”

The Human Rights Commission’s problems with Harmony Day come down to a couple of key factors which continue to make traditional left-wing thought and action deeply unpopular.

One, it isn’t militant enough. Two, it doesn’t involve a guilt trip.

It’s the same kind of mentality which saw the permanently angry Lidia Thorpes of this world damage the cause of the Voice to parliament, saying it didn’t go far enough because it didn’t involve a treaty or reparations, and that as far as they were concerned it was feel good, middle class BS.

This sort of aggro analysis did wonders for the Yes campaign, meaning Indigenous people ended up with even less than they could have through the referendum question.

Senator Lidia Thorpe speaks to the media after casting her vote in the Indigenous Voice referendum at a polling station at Reservoir. Picture: Andrew Henshaw

But the idea that primary school children should be at the vanguard of a much edgier and angrier anti-racism event is a step beyond the pale.

The AHRC has even produced a fact sheet for schools, revealed this week by The Australian, which in unctuous PC cliche itemises its grievances with the horrific spectacle of Peruvian-Australian kiddies wearing ponchos to school and introducing their classmates to the joys of ceviche and the panpipes.

“The renaming of this day hides the longstanding systemic racial discrimination many people have faced in Australia,’’ the AHRC fact sheet thunders.

“Calling this commemoration Harmony Day/Week causes harm to our collective anti-racism journey by undermining efforts to identify and address the harm experienced by communities because of racism.’’

Despite being not short of left-wing members, even the Albanese government rubbished the Human Rights Commission’s criticisms.

“Harmony Week is all about breaking down barriers and increasing understanding,’’ Education Minister Jason Clare said. “That’s a good thing.’’

Indeed it is.

The AHRC should reflect on its hand-wringing assertion that “our collective anti-racism journey” is harmed by Harmony Day in light of one key fact – everybody seems to love it. The kids, the parents, the teachers, the principals.

It lacks the competitive edge of book week, where mothers send themselves spare and Spotlight shares soaring by trying to sew the best Harry Potter costume the world has ever seen.

It’s a positive celebration of who we are as Australians.

There was a story out of Adelaide that went national last year where the South Australian branch of the Australian Education Union pre-printed its 2025 diaries for union members with the word “Invasion Day” written on January 26.

The fact the union had gone to the trouble of officially declaring that date as Invasion Day points to a resolute form of thinking, whereby only one version of events should be taught in schools.

Now as a parent, and as one who sympathises with Indigenous dismay at January 26 being designated as party time, I don’t think the story of Australia Day should be taught as all sweetness and light. Kids, even primary school kids, should know the history of that date, and how its designation as a day of celebration is contested in this country.

But the idea the whole history of Australia should be told wholly through the prism of an invasion is equally wrong too.

The silliness about the Human Rights Commission’s position is kids actually understand the day is about celebrating difference, which in itself is anathema to racism.

And I know it would stick in their craw but instead of producing fact sheets, the AHRC should reflect on a truth about the standing of Harmony Day on Australia’s scholastic calendar – namely it’s never been more popular than since John Howard turned it into a party, as opposed to a mandated day of misery designed by the United Nations.

Originally published as It looks like Australian school kids understand racism better than the Human Rights Commission | David Penberthy