IPA spokesperson Daniel Wild claims Australia is the least racist country in the world despite “elites” claiming it is entrenched.
Conservative commentator Daniel Wild has argued that Australia is the “least racist country on Earth” despite “elites” claiming racism is a deep-seated problem.
His comments follow recent comments by Racial Discrimination Commissioner Giridharan Sivaraman, who said that “anti-white” or “reverse” racism, such as the accusation leveled at Matildas star Sam Kerr that he had called a police officer UK “stupid white bastard” – “missed the point.”
Instead, Sivaraman said, the notion of anti-white racism distanced Australia from addressing the “real issues of structural racism and other forms of racism in this country”.
But Wild, deputy chief executive of the Institute of Public Affairs (IPA), said the country “has done more than any other nation to pioneer advances toward democracy and equality” by promoting individual advancement over group division. .
“Based on this divisive ideology of identity politics, a small group of elites and the political class tell us that Australia is a racist nation,” Mr Wild told WhatsNew2Day Australia.
“These activists claim the country’s institutions are racist because they were established by the British… and fail to understand that modern Australia offers unparalleled opportunities for all Australians, regardless of race or ancestry.”
The IPA is a Melbourne-based think tank that advocates free markets and conservative ideals and has strong links to the Liberal Party, the mining industry and the Murdoch press.
Mr Wild pointed to two examples of pioneering Australian methods that have subsequently become cornerstones of democracy and equality in modern society.
The first, he said, is the secret ballot, first enacted into law in South Australia in 1856, which resulted in each person’s vote having equal weight regardless of race or affiliation.
The ‘Australian ballot’, as it is also known, is printed at public expense, contains the names of all candidates, is distributed empty at the polling place and marked anonymously by the voter.
The second, he said, is the Church Act established in New South Wales in 1836 which allowed equal funding for various Christian denominations and which set the framework for a religiously tolerant modern Australia.
Wild said school and university students are “soaked in ideology” about Australia’s historical failures and are not being taught a balanced view of our history that celebrates the country’s achievements in establishing a world-leading democracy.
Treaty Day Protest Before the Invasion of Voices on January 26, 2023 in Melbourne, Australia
Sivaraman, however, has argued that racism is embedded in Australian society.
‘We had a White Australia policy. Our positions of power (in politics, the media and the judiciary) are (still) in the hands of white people. That is the context in which racism occurs and it needs to be understood,” he told the Sydney Morning Herald.
‘Sometimes we cover the racial inequalities that exist with a veneer of supposed harmony. That is: we don’t want to admit that there are problems and issues, and that we don’t necessarily all have a fair chance, which is the Australian spirit,” he said.
“If calling out racism is ‘woke,’ and ‘woke’ becomes a pejorative term used to suppress or undermine the credibility of someone’s comments, there is no room to even talk about racism.”
The treatment of indigenous Australians is a particularly sensitive point in Australian history.
Early English colonial settlers committed documented massacres against Aboriginal tribes, and between 1905 and 1967 thousands of people were resettled into white society in what was later called the Stolen Generations.
Aboriginal people still make up 28 per cent of prisoners, despite making up between 2 and 3 per cent of the population, according to the Bureau of Statistics, and die in custody at much higher rates than other prisoners.
Wild agreed Australia is “not without its faults” but argued our modern society sets the benchmark for tolerance and inclusion.
“The White Australian policy was wrong and was rightly repealed in favor of a non-discriminatory immigration policy, which has been the foundation of our nation’s success from the 1970s onwards,” Mr Wild said.
‘Those who disagree should educate themselves on the facts of Australian history, for example the Kable affair, the secret ballot, the Church Act, the 1967 and 2023 referendums.
‘The vast majority of Australians voted in the 1967 referendum to remove divisive references to race in the Constitution, while 60 per cent voted No in the 2023 referendum to enshrine racial difference in our constitution via Voice to parliament.
“Time and again Australians have risen to the occasion to show their support for the basic ideal that we should all be treated as equals, regardless of our race, ethnicity, origin or gender.”