A fiery partisan clash has erupted in Australian federal parliament over the Albanese government’s prolonged delay in allocating implementation funding for the country’s landmark National Anti-Racism Framework, with a senior Greens senator accusing the ruling Labor government of callous disregard for the daily harms experienced by communities of color across the nation.
Greens Senator Mehreen Faruqi delivered the scathing critique during Tuesday afternoon’s Senate estimates hearing, calling out the government for failing to earmark any funding for the framework’s rollout in the 2026-27 federal budget, more than 19 months after the policy document was formally released. The Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) first unveiled the comprehensive framework in November 2024, which outlines 63 targeted actionable recommendations to counter systemic and interpersonal racism across four critical Australian sectors: law, education, healthcare, and media.
Faruqi emphasized that even the nation’s top racial justice official has repeatedly pushed the federal government for urgent progress. “The Race Discrimination Commissioner has written to the Attorney-General on multiple occasions literally pleading for action on the National Anti-Racism Framework, and yet the only response that even the Race Discrimination Commissioner gets is it is being carefully considered,” Faruqi told the hearing. “But, while you are carefully considering people are being harmed every single day in this country.”
She directly addressed Labor Senator Nita Green during the heated exchange, stating, “it just seems to me, Minister, that the government really does not give a damn about what people of colour are facing in the community every single day.”
Green pushed back firmly against Faruqi’s accusations, rejecting the claim that the government is neglecting anti-racism action. She countered that the federal government already provided AHRC with funding to develop the framework in the first place, and is currently taking a deliberate, all-encompassing approach to evaluating the 63 recommendations.
“It’s not a requirement that the government would respond in the way that other reports require a response,” Green noted. “But, we’re considering those recommendations, and further to that, we’re certainly committed to a holistic response to address racism.”
Green also pointed to existing government investment in anti-racism initiatives, including funding for AHRC’s Seen and Heard project, and the recent passage of targeted hate speech regulatory reforms, as proof of the government’s ongoing commitment to combating racism. She added that implementation of the framework is not the sole responsibility of the Commonwealth government: the recommendations are designed to be enacted collaboratively by federal authorities, state and territorial governments, and private sector stakeholders.
Federal officials echoed this stance during the hearing, noting that the government is also integrating consideration of the framework’s recommendations with ongoing work from the Special Envoys for Anti-Semitism and Islamophobia, to address overlapping racial justice priorities across all levels of government.