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Australia has not escaped its racist past

Australia's history is littered with incidents of prejudice and discrimination based on gender, religion and race.

Yet, this same history also includes stunning advances in social equity - not least in the creation of a vibrant, multicultural society. So, it stings Australian sensibilities when local and overseas commentators claim, from time to time, that we are fundamentally a racist nation. Recent events, especially violent crimes against Indian students, have escalated the level of criticism.

However, is such criticism justified? While the taint of racism may stain the lives of some individuals, is it fair to apply this label to a whole society?

And even if justified by past deeds, can a society escape the gravitational pull of its history and make amends for its past?

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Speakers

For

• Robert Manne is Professor of Politics and Convenor of the Ideas & Society Program at La Trobe University. He has contributed to public debate for the past three decades, as a public affairs commentator in The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Australian and The Monthly, as a regular contributor to ABC radio and television and as author and editor of a large number of books and essays, including The Petrov Affair, Whitewash, In Denial, The Howard Years and Left, Right, Left.
• Gautam Gupta is the Founder of Federation of Indian Students of Australia. He has led many campaigns for social transformation. His work became known after his leadership brought the issue of violence and fraud affecting Indians to the fore of public debate. The topic became a 'barbecue stopper' in Australia and queried Australia's national character.
• Hanifa Deen is an award winning Australian author of Pakistani ancestry. She is a former Deputy Commissioner of the Multicultural and Ethnic Affairs Commission of WA and a director on the Board of SBS.

Against:

• Dr Tanveer Ahmed is a psychiatry registrar and opinion columnist for The Sydney Morning Herald. His writings often relate to the place of mental health in modern society. A former SBS television cadet, he sits on the Advertising Standards Board, the advisory council to the Smith Family and is a former national representative for junior doctors within the Australian Medical Association. He has also performed comedy and co-hosted a prime time gameshow. He has previously been chosen by a PM's committee as one of a hundred future leaders of Australia and as "a young man of influence" by a popular men's magazine. He has written and spoken frequently on the issue of racism.
• Dr Gurdip Aurora migrated to Australia in 1972. While working at the Austin Hospital as a Cardiology Registrar he faced an interesting ‘discrimination’ incident and opted to abandon  cardiology training to move in to General Practice. Gurdip joined The Australia India Society of Victoria in 1984 and became President in 1987. During this time he founded the Victorian Indian Community Charitable Trust Fund to help the under privileged in the community. AISV, which was founded as a cultural organisation, changed its constitution to become politically active in the policies of the Federal as well as the state governments and Gurdip  negotiated with the State Police and Transport Ministers to have Sikhs exempted from carrying the traditional Kirpan (sword) and from wearing the helmet while riding a push bike. In his medical career, Gurdip is currently the longest serving Visiting Medical Officer at the Angliss Hospital and teaches medical students from Monash and Melbourne University.
• Professor Bob Birrell is the director of the Centre for Population and Urban Research at Monash University in Melbourne. He is one of Australia's leading social scientists. He graduated in economics from Melbourne University, in history from University of London (first class honours) and has a PhD in Sociology from Princeton University. He has acted as an advisor on immigration issues to both Labor and Coalition governments and was a member of the Commonwealth Government’s National Population Council from 1987–1993. Professor Birrell was a member of the independent Review of the General Skilled Migration Program which reported in May 2006.

Chair:

Dr Simon Longstaff is Executive Director of St James Ethics Centre. Simon spent five years studying and working as a member of Magdalene College, Cambridge. Having won scholarships to study at Cambridge, he read for the degrees of Master of Philosophy and Doctor of Philosophy. He was inaugural President of The Australian Association for Professional & Applied Ethics and is a Director of a number of companies. He is a Fellow of the World Economic Forum and a member of the International Advisory Committee of the Foreign Policy Association, based in New York. Simon has been Executive Director of St James Ethics Centre since shortly after it was founded.