The Scanlon Report: What does it really say about Australia today?

Two experts from the Centre for Culture, Ethnicity and Health, director Demos Krouskos and Community Engagement Officer Hope Mathumbu, respond to the Scanlon Foundation’s 2016 report on social cohesion, Australians Today.

 

Demos Krouskos, Director of Centre for Culture, Ethnicity and Health

‘We need to address discrimination through a deeper understanding of the underlying causes.’

Earlier this month, the Scanlon Foundation released the latest edition its annual report, Australians Today, undertaken by Professor Andrew Markus from Monash University. Published since 2009, it provides a comprehensive in-depth longitudinal study of key Australian attitudes on issue of immigration, multiculturalism, cultural diversity and experience of discrimination. The survey also reports on issues of personal trust and trust in key Australian institutions.

From a healthcare perspective, perhaps the report’s most significant finding is the very high level of trust in healthcare institutions reported by Australians, including those recently arrived. For example, those surveyed reported levels of trust between 83% and 93% for doctors, Medicare and hospitals.

While this is pleasing, other findings reveal deep seated discriminatory attitudes to certain groups in the Australia, particularly Muslims. When asked about negative feelings towards particular denominational groups, 4.1% reported negative feelings towards Christians, while 24% reported negative feelings towards Muslims.

The report also highlights on-going systemic and personal discrimination towards certain groups both in public places, workplaces and the like. Discriminatory behaviour includes verbal abuse and actions that make people feel that they do not belong in Australia. This is particularly concerning because discriminatory actions against groups and individuals have significant and long lasting effects on health, particularly mental health.

While these findings are concerning they also present an opportunity for healthcare services to more actively address issues of discrimination in the community. Perhaps the best place to start is in our own workplaces. The report findings confirm that public spaces, work places and public transport are the places where newly arrived migrants experience discrimination with the highest frequency and severity. We need to address discrimination through a deeper understanding of the underlying causes, and ensure that our workplaces value and celebrate all forms of diversity and reflect the great diversity of the Australian community in all its dimensions and manifestations.

 

Hope Mathumbu, Community Engagement Officer

‘I feel there is a cognitive dissonance in the Australian psyche.’

When the latest survey by the Scanlon Foundation was released with findings around social cohesion in Australia, I already knew that I would not be surprised by the results. As a socially and politically engaged Black South African woman who has been living in Australia for the past 13 years, I have myriad examples of racism and social exclusion in Australia.

Although the Scanlon report offers a collective view of racism and discrimination, it may still be tempting to view racist acts against individuals as isolated incidents. But as many who have endured racism know, these acts are symptomatic of a wider cultural problem which touches our media, our history and our policies.

Interestingly, Screen Australia released their own study looking at diversity on Australian television which found that between 2011 and 2015, only 18% of main characters in a TV drama were from non-Anglo-Celtic backgrounds, although 32% of Australians have backgrounds other than Anglo-Celtic. What if the study had looked into television personalities or media commentators as well? Wherever I look, conversations about people from migrant and refugee communities, as well as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, happen without us. People who are in positions of influence and power are still mainly from Anglo-Celtic backgrounds, and do not seem to see the importance of improving representation at a leadership level.

We often also see these groups conducting patronising debates about whether certain acts have been racist or not. On a recent episode of Q&A, there was a discussion about the issue of freedom of speech. The panel was made up of only white people, and one of the panellists, Brendan O’Neill, commented that he loved ‘hearing hate speech’ as it reminds him that he lives in a ‘free country’. When our voices are marginalised and we are not given the opportunity to tell our own stories in the mainstream media, racism, misinformation and stereotypes are allowed to flourish.

Tackling racism in Australia is intrinsically tied to the rights of the first people of this nation. However much racism I have been subjected to in Australia, it is nothing compared to the ongoing and systematic erasure of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. In South Africa after Apartheid, the new ‘Rainbow Nation’ was built on truth, reconciliation and recognition of the various South African ethnic groups and their languages. The First Nations people of Australia only received an apology in 2008 – an important act which nevertheless cannot restore what has been taken away. As a migrant living on stolen land, I know that any fight against racism cannot happen without the First Nations people of this country.

In the summary of the Scanlon Report, it discusses how Australia is broadly tolerant and a good place for immigrants. I am left wondering, which immigrants? Obviously refugees and asylum seekers were not considered in this report. I feel there is a cognitive dissonance in the Australian psyche. We like to see ourselves as a multicultural society that accepts everyone, but this ‘acceptance’ is very much conditional. We champion anti-racism causes, but at the same time, we perpetuate systems of torture and abuse on people seeking asylum both onshore and offshore. I feel that the Scanlon report, just like Australian society, is selective in its analysis of those who have migrated to Australia. Yes, our resettlement program is amazing, but we must not forget that seeking asylum is not illegal and there are a big group of people – men, women and children – who are being detained, denied access to basic human rights and systematically abused. These people are caught up in an unfair system that we are all responsible for.

The Centre for Culture, Ethnicity and Health, as an organisation with a responsibility to migrant and refugee communities, must tackle racism at both the individual and the systemic level. Overall, it is important to remember that racism extends beyond individual acts. We also need to, as Aboriginal activist Celeste Liddle notes, examine ‘how our policies discriminate, how our media neglects, how our education system lacks and our politicians pass the buck’.

 

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