Goal 3: Racism and discrimination are no longer barriers to participation, progress, safety and success across all sectors

Organisations play a part in creating barriers that stop people from fully taking part in all facets of life including work, study, health and sport. They also have a critical role in reducing these barriers and supporting full and safe participation, progress and safety.

This strategy recognises that the progress the Victorian community wants to see extends beyond what government does. It needs to occur in people’s everyday lives as family members, workers, consumers, students, patients or players on a sports field.

To achieve this, we will focus on:

statewide initiatives to build the capability and capacity of organisations to prevent and respond to racism

systems-focused initiatives to address longstanding issues around racism and create safer, more inclusive environments

initiatives to address barriers to work opportunities and representation in leadership positions for under-represented groups.

This means encouraging organisations, businesses and institutions to adopt anti-racism best practice in policy and governance.

This will create safe, inclusive environments and promote fair outcomes for First Peoples and those from multicultural and multifaith backgrounds.

We directly need policy that ensures people who experience structural exclusions to these industries can have opportunities to meaningfully participate in them. This includes embedding diversity standards in the industries, facilitating meaningful collaboration and consultation and supporting ongoing education and training in anti-racism and cultural safety.
– Written submission from Diversity Arts Australia

Key areas for action

Initiatives to build the capability of organisations to be anti-racist and respond to racism

Develop an Anti-racism ‘tick’ accreditation scheme to improve the capacity of private and community sector organisations to apply anti-racist best practice in:

recruitment

retention

progression

workplace health and safety.

Publish comprehensive race discrimination guidelines to educate organisations on their obligations around race discrimination. This will include resources to help them:

identify racism

develop prevention plans

complete audits

operate in a culturally safe way.

Future priority areas

Develop initiatives to reduce barriers to employment and progression for First Peoples, multicultural and multifaith groups.

Create culturally responsive employment supports and outcomes for First Peoples and multicultural people.

Embed systemic reforms to prevent and respond to racism and discrimination in health, justice and other settings.

Promote anti-racism practice in sport and recreation settings.

Strengthen leadership pathways for First Peoples and multicultural people.

Goal 3 case study

In August 2024 the Victorian Government and VEOHRC launched the Guideline: Race discrimination in the workplace. This guideline serves as a blueprint for preventing and addressing workplace racism and race discrimination. It is an important resource to make sure Victoria’s workplaces are inclusive and that everyone can thrive and succeed at work.
VEOHRC developed the guideline in consultation with the Victorian community including multicultural and First Peoples communities, advocacy organisations, community legal centres, unions and workplace discrimination experts.
The guideline seeks to combat race discrimination in the workplace by:
- helping to increase organisational understanding of workplace racism and build racial literacy
- assisting employers to understand and comply with their legal obligations under the Equal Opportunity Act 2010
- helping employers to identify, prevent and respond to racism in the workplace and in work-related settings using 5 standards for compliance
- supporting First Peoples and racialised Victorians to fully take part in the workforce
- assisting people experiencing workplace discrimination to understand and enforce their rights.
Alongside the guideline, VEOHRC has developed other resources including policy guides, employee guides and fact sheets to support workplaces to become anti-racist.
To ensure the resources are accessible to all Victorians, the fact sheets, active bystander guide and racial literacy guide will be translated into 12 languages: Arabic, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Farsi, Hazaragi, Karen, Khmer, Korean, Punjabi, Somali, Turkish and Vietnamese.
All resources, including translations, can be found on the VEOHRC website(opens in a new window)

Measuring our progress: signs of impact

We will know we are on track for success when:

more First Peoples, multicultural and multifaith Victorians feel culturally safe and represented in key sectors and settings

there is an increase in the take-up of our anti-racism accreditation scheme and compliance with the ‘tick’ standards to measure improvement over time

we contribute as a state to an increase in the number of Australians reporting that their organisation is taking steps to create a diverse and inclusive workplace (up from 57%).[133]

[133] R D’Almada-Remedios and J O’Leary, Inclusion@Work Index 2021–2022: Mapping the state of inclusion in the Australian workforce, Diversity Council Australia, Sydney, 2021

Updated 27 November 2024