Giri Sivaraman has spent decades championing workers' rights. Now, as Australia’s Race Discrimination Commissioner, he is taking that fight even further. Speaking at the National Council, Giri left delegates in no doubt: tackling racism is union business, and it’s the right thing to do.

Below is the full speech delivered by Giri Sivaraman at the 2025 National Council.

My name is Giridharan Sivaraman and I’m the Commonwealth Race Discrimination Commissioner at the Australian Human Rights Commission.  
  
I wish to acknowledge the Gadigal peoples of the Eora Nation as traditional custodians of the land we are meeting on, and pay my respects to elders past and present. I’d like to extend those respects to any Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander people here today.  

Acknowledging that I’m on country is important.

For me, as a non-Indigenous person, but who has lived experience of racism and is leading anti-racism work, it’s important to understand the difference between the racism someone like me suffers, and that which is suffered and has been suffered for 238 years by First peoples.

Someone like me may suffer racism through a denial of equality, dignity and respect. The racism First peoples suffered and continue to suffer is also a denial of equality, dignity and respect.

But in addition, it is a denial of self determination and sovereignty which included the taking of their land by settlers before me. And I, as a settler migrant, have benefited from that denial of sovereignty. I have benefited from the taking of their land.

Therefore, it is a small but important step for me to acknowledge I’m on country. Not trite or a formality. It matters.

It is a privilege to present this year’s the RTBU National Council event. 

I represented Trade Unions for over 20 years and was a member for longer. I was also a partner of a large commercial law firm, and a board member on a number of boards, including being Chair. I was the Chair of the QLS industrial law committee. So I’ve gained a pretty decent understanding of industrial relations from all sides.

But let me tell you what I’ve also been.

The second partner of colour in a law firm that had been around, by that stage, for 93 years.

The only person of colour in the industrial law committee.

Often the only person of colour in a room full of Union officials.

Often the only person of colour at the bar table, and almost always, in the Fair Work Commission, the State Commission, the Federal Circuit Court and Federal Court, appearing before someone who is white.

The only person of colour speaking at conferences, like this one. Your Union has been around for 170 years. When it was formed, only white men could have been officials. I look around this room and lament, 170 years later, has much changed. Your membership has. Your leadership hasn’t.

This doesn’t happen by accident. Its not a question of people of colour waiting for their time to come. There were 15 Africans and 8 Jews on the First Fleet. People from China, India, what is now Pakistan, and Afghanistan migrated to Australia from the 1830s.  They’ve been waiting 200 years for their time to come. We have a rich and deep history of migration of people of Asian origin in this country, but we have an equally rich and deep history of racism towards them. Some may have been shocked to see the Indian community targeted by anti-immigration marchers and propoganda two months ago, along with vitriol and hate online, some of which was personally directed at me, but I wasn’t. The target changes, but the problem remains.

The question we have to have the courage to ask ourselves is why does the bile of interpersonal racism continuously surface. What is wrong with our systems and institutions that allows this to happen.

Our workplaces are environments where we spend most of our daily lives. And whether in person or virtual, they involved systems or institutions where we should all feel safe, and free from the harms of discrimination.

For us to implement anti-racist approaches in the workplace, it is essential for us understand structural racism. If we only understand racism in its overt or interpersonal forms -- like through harassment or racist slurs -- it can be easy to overlook the less visible ways racism impacts people’s lives, and to say it isn’t happening. It can also be easy to say that we aren’t part of the problem because we aren’t saying or doing racist things to other people. However, when we understand structural racism, we know that we also have a responsibility as individuals to actively dismantle the implicit racism in the systems and institutions we are part of. 

Case Study

I’ll start with a story, something to give you context. Everything I will tell you is true, drawn from many different stories.

Fatima Abdullah, a pseudonym, is a successful civil engineer in Syria. Due to her work, she speaks some English, but her native tongue is Arabic. Her qualifications are all from Syrian institutions. She is a devout Muslim and observes Ramadan, as well as wearing a hijab. She migrates to Sydney with the hope, excitement, and fear, that many of us share as migrants. An important part of a new life is employment.  From the outset this proves to be challenging.  

Wherever she looks, it’s difficult to find jobs that accept her overseas qualifications. And despite her decades of senior experience, most of the job ads she sees call for Australian experience. Suddenly, her entire career seems irrelevant.

She ends up landing an interview for entry-level job in her sector, far below her level of experience. As she arrives to the interview, the hiring manager greets her politely. Yet… she can tell through his body language that he didn’t expect her to ‘look like that.’   She nervously adjusts her hijab as a wave of anxiety surges through her.  The interview itself proves to be stressful. She feels more confident in written English, and this is a conversational style interview with Australian colloquialisms she yet doesn’t understand. Before she even finishes the interview, she knows she’s not going to hear back.

Weeks pass, and desperate to keep afloat, Fatima takes a job as a cleaner.

When she starts in the job she’s introduced as being from Syria.  No one seems interested in anything else about her. People are nice, though there seem to be a lot of comments on the food she packs for lunch. Praying is difficult as there is no safe easy place to pray in the workplace and she often ends up in the bathroom. During a training day in the office, she tries to explain a bit about her culture and writes her name in Arabic on a whiteboard. She leaves it up, and a few days later HR come to her to say that people have said they are uncomfortable seeing Arabic in the workplace.

Ramadan coincides with a busy period at work and she’s told that all employees will need to work longer hours for that month, meaning she is consistently delayed in breaking her fast, which contributes to her fatigue. 

Disenchanted, she tries to make connections, but finds most socialising occurs at Friday night drinks with alcohol where she doesn’t feel comfortable. She applies for promotions but is told that she doesn't have the ‘cultural fit’ for leadership, despite having management experience.

Finally, feeling like she isn’t seen, valued or respected, she makes the difficult decision to leave. She is left without job security and worried about her future.  In her exit interview, no one asks her about whether she experienced racism of any kind. 

So at the end of her employment relationship, we have a person demoralised and diminished, and an employer that did not get anywhere near the full potential of its employee, and will go back through the recruitment process all over again, potentially leading to the same outcome.

Something you might note from this example, is that throughout Fatima’s experience, there was no overt racism. She wasn’t subjected to direct racist name-calling or bullying, although that is the experience of some.

It was the racism embedded throughout the system that created barriers to her inclusion and success. It made her feel she didn’t belong, and that the essential parts of her as a person were unacceptable and inferior. This slowly isolated her and harmed her wellbeing until she made the difficult decision to leave – leaving her with no job security.

So, what went wrong? It wasn’t just one thing, but a system of things.  

When racism is structural, it goes beyond personal bias. It is about systems that harm through a lack of racial literacy and cultural safety. We can see this from employment, to healthcare, to education.

Let me explain “racial literacy”.   

If I get off the plane in Chennai, India, my city of birth, I’m simply Giri, or Giridharan to some relatives.  When I return back home to Brisbane, I become "diverse", “multicultural”, "ethnic", even "of non-English speaking background".   

Understanding my, and much more importantly many others’ supposed difference to what’s considered the norm is racial literacy. The next step in racial literacy is understanding how our systems deem what’s acceptable.

To fight against this disadvantage, we must do more than acknowledge it. We must change the structures that sustain it.     

Fortunately, we already have the roadmap to make this happen.  

National Anti-Racism Framework

In November last year, the Commission released the National Anti-Racism Framework. It contains 63 recommendations for a whole of society approach, with proposed reforms across Australia’s legal, justice, health, education, media and arts sectors as well as data collection and workplaces.

The National Anti-Racism Framework identifies workplaces as a vital setting for addressing racism in society.

While many of the Framework’s recommendations are applicable to workplaces, there are also 12 specific recommendations.

A key recommendation relates to increasing representation in the workforce, particularly in leadership and senior roles. However it does not simply advocate for increased representation through diversity targets, but for a holistic approach. It calls on employers to implement, monitor, and evaluate strategies for hiring, promotion, and retention of staff from communities that experience racism, including First Peoples.

This should occur in tandem with other recommendations, including mandatory cultural safety and anti-racism training for all workers; implementing internal workplace anti-racism strategies; and national standards for reporting racism in workplaces. 

As you can see, the National Anti-Racism Framework does not simply call for increased representation through diversity targets, but for a holistic approach.

Cultural safety

A key theme across all areas of the National Anti-Racism Framework is cultural safety. It was identified in our consultations as a best-practice approach for addressing racial inequities, barriers and harms experienced in the workplace and in the provision of services. 

Reflecting on the story of Fatima – and other migrants, and negatively racialised people, like her - What can this look like?

It starts from the sourcing of candidates. Where are roles advertised, or recruitment campaigns targeted? Do they end up targeting institutions or professional networks with low representation of First Peoples or other negatively racialised individuals. Are overseas qualifications recognised? How is the criteria worded? Too often I see so much jargon  and waffle that it probably excludes people from migrant backgrounds. In Fatima’s case, all of this impacted her ability to look for work. 

Then there is the recruitment process. Racial bias can affect decisions on supposed merit. It's well documented that applicants with English-sounding names are far more likely to receive job interviews than those with non-English names, even if their qualifications are similar. Are applications de-identified?  Is there anyone with experience of racism on the interview panel? Conversational style interviews may create barriers for racialised applicants who do not speak English as a first language. Has that been considered in deciding how to run the interview? Again, we see how all of this impacted Fatima. 

Then there is onboarding. Is it done in a culturally safe manner? How often have we of racialised backgrounds experienced being introduced by our race rather than professional background or role. 

Next, we have remuneration. Do overseas qualifications mean people of racialised backgrounds get lower salaries then their white counterparts. 

Next is cultural safety in the workplace for racialised people. Can languages other than English be spoken in the workplace? Is there a safe place to pray? Can a racialised employee have leave or other considerations for cultural needs? This is an issue consistently raised as a barrier for First nation’s employees.

The only religious holidays enshrined in law are Christian ones. Do restrictive dress codes forbid certain cultural clothing or hairstyles? Do allegations of racism actually get addressed, and in a safe way.  

Next is development and promotion. Are racialised employees unable to access development opportunities because their boss doesn’t see them as the white normative idea of leader. Are they meaningfully included in decision making processes? Who carries the cultural load for change? So often it falls on racialised employees to bring about the change rather than those who are in power. We could see for Fatima how difficult and unfair that was. Do you actively interrogate why are there so few people of colour in positions of leadership? This is particularly pronounced in the public service.  

Finally on separation, do you ask people whether racialised employees experienced racism? Do you ask it in such a way as take into account structural racism?  

None of what I just described from looking for work to leaving is direct interpersonal racism. All of what I just described is structural racism. You can see how on each occasion that structural racism impacted someone like Fatima. That employer could have someone with incredible global experience, experience that its likely no one else in the workplace had. Instead, she left with her identity and self-worth diminished, and the employer goes back to recruitment, potentially making all the same mistakes again.

Positive duty

In the National Anti-Racism Framework, I’ve also suggested the inclusion of a positive duty within the Racial Discrimination Act to eliminate racial discrimination by employers, business, and in the provision of goods and services.  A positive duty requires pro-active, evidence-based measures to be implemented to prevent racism from happening in the first place, rather than leaving those who are impacted by racism to fend for themselves in our schools, and at work. I truly hope the RTBU can support  the need for this critical legal reform.  

If you’ve fought for better workplace protections, like on the basis of disability, or gender, you already know it takes real legal and policy change to make things better, not just ‘competency’ training and DEI. It’s the same with racism.   

We must enact meaningful systemic change for us all to truly thrive.

I encourage everyone here today to read the Framework and reflect on your own areas of work and influence, and commit to meaningful change as we embrace this collective journey to eliminate racism.

In conclusion

Unions must also have their own reckoning with racism. How sometimes they were the strongest of advocates for a white Australia. Even now, there are times where I the only person who is not white in a room full of union officials. Some of the most dreadful racism I have endured is at the hands of union officials, and it’s just not good enough.

Unions are one of the most powerful forces for good in our society, but they should never let their wins obscure their sins. I am certain from many of my recent discussions with Union leaders that they are ready for this challenge. 

Unions have often been at the forefront of difficult battles, doing what is hard but also right. Fighting systemic racism is hard, but it is the right thing to do. Think about what I have said in your next round of bargaining. See if you can get employers to commit to anti-racism strategies. Think about all those touch points in the employment relationship I have mentioned and how policies, procedures, terms and conditions can better counter structural racism.

Many of the rights we take for granted today exist because people came together in solidarity, refused to accept injustice and demanded change. When we collectively commit to a better future and reflect this commitment in our everyday actions, change is possible.

And if you are someone who does not experience racism, your role is even more important. Defeating racism is not a zero sum game. We all benefit from a society where everyone feels safe, everyone can be their whole selves, everyone can prosper and everyone can be happy. That's my vision and I ask you to join me help us realise it together.