Australia’s Human Rights Race Discrimination Commissioner has come under fire after controversial comments he made about Australia Day resurfaced.
Giridharan Sivaraman didn’t hold back in expressing his views about the national holiday celebrated on January 26 in an interview with an independent radio station in Melbourne last October.
He described the date as a day of mourning that ‘compounds racism’ and shouldn’t be celebrated in comments reported by the Daily Telegraph.
It’s one of a number of divisive comments he’s made since being appointed to the commissioner role last year by federal Attorney General Mark Dreyfus.
‘Australia Day is Invasion Day for our First Nations brothers and sisters and is a day of mourning in many ways and not a day to be celebrated,’ Mr Sivaraman told the radio program last October.
‘And to not acknowledge that just compounds racism.’
Mr Sivaraman also claimed that Australia’s ‘systems and institutions are inherently affected by racism’ which ‘maintain white power and privilege’.
He also joked that his best chance of getting a job on television was to ‘bang down the door of SBS, try your luck at ABC or become a really, really really good cook’.
Australia’s Human Rights Race Discrimination Commissioner Giridharan Sivaraman described January 26 as a day of mourning that ‘compounds racism’ and shouldn’t be celebrated. Two young women are pictured celebrating Australia Day
Giridharan Sivaraman described Australia Day as ‘Invasion Day for our First Nations brothers and sisters’
Mr Dreyfus described Mr Sivaraman as a ‘great asset’ when he selected him for the role from a shortlist of candidates in February 2024.
He insisted the Australia Day date is not up for debate.
‘As the Prime Minister has said on many, many occasions – the government has no plans to change the date of Australia Day,’ Mr Drefus told Daily Mail Australia on Thursday night.
‘The Australian Human Rights Commission is an independent statutory authority and as such, questions about statements made by the Commissioner should be directed to them.’
Daily Mail Australia has contacted Mr Sivaraman for comment.
In an hour-long video from last August – titled ‘How to be an anti-racist in the workplace’ – Mr Sivaraman outlined how ‘structural racism’ exists in workplaces.
‘Do overseas qualifications mean people of racialised backgrounds get lower salaries than their white counterparts? Can languages other than English be spoken in the workplace,’ he asked.
‘Are racialised employees unable to access development opportunities because their boss doesn’t see them as the white normative idea of a leader?’
Mr Dreyfus described Mr Sivaraman as a ‘great asset’ when he was appointed last year, but said Australia Day is not up for negotiation. A woman celebrating Australia Day is pictured
Mr Sivaraman has been slammed online for his views.
‘Australians are sick of being called racist. Fed up with being demonised, especially by someone we are forced to pay his salary,’ one wrote.
Mr Dreyfus also came under fire online for distancing himself from the controversy.
The Commonwealth Race Discrimination Commissioner role, which pays around $400,000 per year, is responsible for ‘promoting equality … conducting research and educational programs to combat racial discrimination’.
The position has existed since the 1980s but made headlines in 2014 when the then Coalition government appointed future Liberal MP Tim Wilson to the role.
Attorney General Mark Dreyfus (left) is pictured with the Race Discrimination Commissioner, Giridharan Sivaraman
It was a surprise appointment as Mr Wilson had previously called for the abolition of the Commission.
In order to stop such political appointments being made again, the first bill Mr Dreyfus introduced in this parliament was to end that practice.
Under the resulting legislation, which passed in late 2022, all appointments to the Australian Human Rights Commission are now designed to be ‘merit-based and transparent’.
