Reflections on reforming discrimination laws in Australia

Australia was once among the world leaders in laws prohibiting discrimination. Our national law against racial discrimination is over 40 years old and yes, that was a generation ago. Even though our aspirational, optimistic, 'we can be a more generous and inclusive society' anti-discrimination laws of the 1970s and 80s live on, they have lived on into a time when the political will (courage? leadership?) to set aspirational standards for respectful conduct, let alone for human rights compliance, seems to have faded. It is impossible to think that the federal government would now, as it did then, turn an international human rights treaty such the Convention for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination into a national law such as the Racial Discrimination Act.