In 1975 the Australian Parliament passed the Racial Discrimination Act. It was able to pass the Act under the ‘external affairs’ power given to the Australian Parliament in the Australian Constitution. Parliament had implemented the 1965 International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, and under its international obligations could therefore pass an Australian law to implement those obligations.

The Act outlawed racial discrimination — that is, treating someone less fairly because of their race, colour, descent or national or ethnic origin.

The Act applied to:

Employment; land, housing or accommodation; the provision of goods or services such as banking, health, entertainment and hospitality; access to places and facilities for use by the public; advertising, and joining a trade union.

The intent of the Act was to eliminate all racial discrimination and vilification.

It included a section that made it unlawful for a person to do an act in public (including writing and publishing words and images), if that act is reasonably likely to ‘offend, insult, humiliate or intimidate’ a person of a certain race, colour or national or ethnic origin. There were exemptions provided where the act related to artistic works, genuine academic or scientific purposes, fair reporting, and fair comment on matters of public interest.

This section has recently become controversial. Some prosecutions undertaken by the Australian Human Rights Commission have raised issues about the balance between the boundaries of free speech, and the difficulty created by the broadness and uncertainty of meaning of the words ‘offend’ and ‘insult’.

^{Reconciliation Australia, Get the Facts: The Racial Discrimination Act, https://www.reconciliation.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/The-Racial…, viewed 14 October 2020}