Tim Soutphommasane warns over suspicion of Chinese Australians

The foreign influence debate threatens to spill over into suspicion of Chinese Australians, the race discrimination chief warns.

The Race Discrimination Commissioner, Dr Tim Soutphommasane. Picture: Hollie Adams

Australia’s Race Discrimination Commissioner Tim Soutphommasane has warned the debate over foreign influence is “threatening to spill over into a general suspicion of Chinese-Australians” and argued “there are signs we are flirting with danger”.

Dr Soutphommasane used a speech in Sydney today to defend the position of Race Discrimination Commissioner as his term draws to close, sounding the alarm on “further signs of racism becoming normalised within mainstream media and public discourse”.

He said that “intolerance has been emboldened” and identified a number of causes including “far-right nationalism aimed at immigrants and multiculturalism” and “old-fashioned bigotry aimed at indigenous people”.

According to a version of his speech posted to the website of the Australian Human Rights Commission, Dr Soutphommasane also attacked the “fear and anxiety” being “whipped up” in relation to African youth crime in Melbourne.

He warned it had led to members of African-Australian Communities being “unjustly stereotyped as being prone to criminality”.

Reflecting on the push to amend section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act, Dr Soutphommasane argued that attempts to change the law amounted to “assaults on racial equality and tolerance”.

“There will continue to be the usual noise from the regular quarters about abolishing section 18C of the Act. There is renewed energy among those who wish to make it easier to discriminate against others, or to make it harder to fight back against racism,” he told the National Forum on Racial Tolerance and Community Harmony. “And the next attack might come from a new direction”.

Addressing the government’s measures to counter foreign interference in Australia’s domestic political processes, Dr Soutphommasane sounded a note of caution. He said it was important to ensure these efforts were not accompanied by a new wave of racism towards the 1.2 million Australians with Chinese ancestry.

He also suggested there were attempts to condition Australians into accepting anti-Chinese sentiment by some “national security hawks”.

“We have seen an intensification of debate about foreign influence — in particular, that of the Chinese Communist Party. This is an important issue, and it is vital there is proportionate action taken to eliminate foreign influence aimed at disrupting and undermining our democratic institutions,” he said.

“It is concerning, however, that some of the antagonism towards the Chinese party state is threatening to spill over into a general suspicion of Chinese-Australians. Many Chinese-Australian members of the community have expressed this apprehension to me.

There are signs we are flirting with danger.

“Just consider how some national security hawks here now suggest that expressing concerns about anti-Chinese racism amounts to aiding the propaganda agenda of the Chinese Communist Party.

“We are now at the point where some are conditioning us to accept that anti-Chinese sentiment may just be collateral damage we must accept in a new cold war. Given there are 1.2 million Australians who have Chinese ancestry, the scale of such potential damage would be significant”.

Dr Soutphommasane said he would finish his five year term on 19 August, but welcomed moves by the Turnbull government to appoint a new Commissioner arguing there was still a pressing need for the position.

“There are some, though, who question the need for a Race Discrimination Commissioner. Some say that racism is so ‘very rare’ in today’s Australia that it doesn’t merit our society having a Commissioner,” he said.

“Clearly, not everyone has experienced racism. For those privileged to be in this position, it is easy to declare we don’t need public offices and efforts dedicated to combating racism. It is convenient to declare that racism doesn’t exist in any significant measure.

He said that, in 2017, 20 per cent of Australians said they had experienced discrimination over the past 12 months.

“Being direct about fighting racism doesn’t sit well with some people. That’s perhaps one reason why some have suggested that the office of Race Discrimination Commissioner be renamed or redefined — that it should be called the Community Relations Commissioner, or something similar. It has been suggested that the work of a Race Discrimination Commissioner is divisive”.

Dr Soutphommasane said it was fitting that the statutory officer under the Racial Discrimination Act be called the “Race Discrimination Commissioner” and warned the position was even more important at a time of resurgent nationalism and the risk of a deterioration in the tenor of public debate.

“At a time when extremist nationalism is on the march, we should be ramping up our efforts to fight racism — not retreating from them,” he said. “Division is caused not by our response to racism; the real division is caused by racism itself”.

“Friends, we must be on guard — not only to the risk of our public discourse deteriorating, but also to the risk, yet again, of legislative change. Because if there is a serious desire to rename the office of Race Discrimination Commissioner or to redefine the functions of the office, this can only be done through a change to the legislation that sets these terms. If people want to change the name or the role of the Race Discrimination Commissioner, they will have to change the Racial Discrimination Act”.

Ends.