Queensland Liberal National senator Ian Macdonald has argued that we don't need a race discrimination commissioner because racism is "very difficult to find" in Australia.
Liberal senator Ian Macdonald says racism is "very rare" in Australia because Jonathan Thurston is the "King of North Queensland"??? #estimates https://t.co/9CMNLEwUIM
The federal government is currently recruiting for a new race discrimination commissioner, with the term of the current commissioner, Tim Soutphommasane, expiring later this year.
Soutphommasane did not apply for an extension of his term, and attorney-general Christian Porter has already suggested he wants someone in the role who has "middle Australian values".
But backbencher Ian Macdonald is questioning why the role even needs to be filled, because, according to the senator, racism in Australia is rare.
"I might live in a bubble perhaps but I find it very difficult to find any but very rare cases of racism in Australia," he told the Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) at Senate Estimates on Thursday. "I mean in this building, we have two senior ministers who are clearly not white Australian male sort of thing."
It is unclear who Macdonald might be referring to. Indigenous minister Ken Wyatt is a junior minister. Could it have been Belgium-born finance minister Mathias Cormann? Or was he just referring to non-male ministers such as defence minister Marise Payne and foreign minister Julie Bishop?
Macdonald argued that racism was rare, particularly in North Queensland, because NRL legend Johnathan Thurston was "the king of North Queensland".
"If only I could get him to run for a political party, he'd walk it in here," he said. "So I just don't know. There are obviously isolated aspects of racism in Australia, but I would say across the board they are very isolated."
AHRC president professor Rosalind Croucher said that the race discrimination role grew out of the 1975 Racial Discrimination Act, and serves to tackle the prejudices that lead to racism. Macdonald replied that he just doesn't see racism in the circle he works in.
"Well, it wouldn't," Greens senator Jordon Steele-John replied.
I wasn’t called to #Estimates today but had I been there I would have reassured senators that you can have a Race Discrimination Commissioner AND Johnathan Thurston https://t.co/lWj0AVmJ17 https://t.co/9vGMLuDXkh
A Scanlon survey in 2016 found that 59% of Indigenous Australians reported being discriminated against, while 77% of those from South Sudan reported discrimination in Australia.