Race panic ‘dragged’ Australia to new low

AUSTRALIA: Panic over Melbourne’s so-called African gang crisis has dragged race relations in Australia to their lowest ebb in years, Race Discrimination Commissioner Tim Soutphommasane says.

Soutphommasane, whose fiveyear term comes to an end in August, told Fairfax Media the saga had opened the floodgates to some of the worst prejudice and racism he had witnessed during his tenure.

‘‘The panic about African youth crime has undoubtedly done significant damage to racial harmony in Melbourne and Australian society more generally,’’ he said.

‘‘There is never anything to be gained from focusing excessively on ethnicity and race around discussions around crime – there is very little to be gained from having race-based panic.’’

Visiting Melbourne to take part in an Australian Human Rights Commission forum on race and media, the commissioner said that inflammatory comments by politicians were exacerbated by irresponsible reporting that explicitly linked crime to race and ethnicity.

Referring to comments such as those made by Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton, who claimed African crime gangs were leaving Melburnians too afraid to go out after dark, Soutphommasane said federal politicians in particular have been fanning the flames of discord for political gain.

‘‘The most dangerous thing for politicians to do is to single out a particular community and direct hostility towards them.’’ Soutphommasane said the impact on the wider African-Australian community should not be underestimated.

He expressed frustration that nothing had been learnt from similar ‘‘panic’’ of the past relating to Asian and European migration, with long-lasting stigmas created around perceived criminality.

His comments come as new figures released by Victoria’s Crime Statistics Agency show that despite regular conflation between ‘‘repeat offenders’’ and ethnicity, 84 per cent of chronic criminal offenders were born in Australia.

The most recent quarterly data shows that despite panic about a crime wave gripping the state, Victoria’s overall crime rate dropped 9.9 per cent in the 12 months to December.

Soutphommasane said criminal offending was carried out by people from a range of ethnic and racial backgrounds.

‘‘If you were to delve into criminal offending and look at the causes behind that, social and economic disadvantage is a much larger driving force behind offending than race or ethnicity,’’ he said.

‘‘But if you look at the reporting and coverage in recent months, that is not the impression you would get.’’ Reflecting more broadly on his stint as the nation’s race discrimination commissioner, during which he has been subjected to a bruising personal campaign by sections of the media, Soutphommasane said there has undoubtedly been a more challenging political environment in recent years regarding anything to do with race.

‘‘The prolonged debate we have had about racial vilification laws and free speech in my view emboldened a small minority of people in our society to believe they have a protected right to be a bigot,’’ he said.

‘‘We have seen a rise of far-right political movements re-emerge here in Australia and internationally. Online we have seen extreme voices enjoy an amplification they have not ever enjoyed.

‘‘So all this adds up to public debate that is more challenging, but that means we’ve just got to be more assertive in expressing our commitment to anti-racism, equality and non-discrimination.’’ Despite the challenges, Soutphommasane said he has been heartened by the fact that mainstream Australian opinion on these issues is resolutely antiracist, even if that is not always reflected in public debates.

‘‘I believe that our society can deal with racism from a position of strength and not a position of weakness, but we can never be complacent,’’ he said. – Fairfax