"It is a genuinely complex phenomenon – not born of any one cause, not confined to any one setting and not limited to any one community," Race Discrimination Commissioner Tim Soutphommasane​ said. The report summarises findings from public consultations with more than 130 community and government groups nationwide about the impact of the law introduced four decades ago to combat prejudice due to race, colour and ethnicity. Respondents told of persistent racial discrimination in the workforce, with many indicating that not having an Anglo-Saxon name or being from a non-English speaking background were barriers to securing and maintaining employment, or being promoted. Among the workplace cases highlighted by the Commission were: an Indian man working for a government department was physically assaulted by colleagues, called him a "ni**er" and a "monkey"

an Aboriginal man whose boss said of Indigenous Australians: "just shoot 'em, just shoot the f***ing c***s"

an African social worker forced to change jobs five times in eight years because "I just couldn't put up with discrimination"

two Nigerian factory workers who each received $17,550 compensation after their supervisor made racist remarks to them.

The Aboriginal community reported serious concerns about combating systemic racism. Participants reported entrenched discrimination in day-to-day life, specifically in the workforce, schools and government. "The consultations indicated a strong community belief that institutional racism against Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people highlights the incomplete protection that current legislation offers against racism," the report said.



"This experience of institutional racism was frequently articulated in general or abstract terms, reflecting the often elusive character of institutional racism. As one participant said, 'racism is framed in the Australian collective imagination' and has a 'structural, political, cultural and economic' character." Aboriginal Victorian of the year Jack Charles was refused a taxi immediately after winning the award. Credit:Simon Schluter Last week, Fairfax Media reported Aboriginal elder Jack Charles was considering legal action against taxi drivers he labelled racist after being refused service on two separate occasions. The first incident occurred moments after he was named Victorian Senior Australian of the Year. In September, the Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service Co-operative warned that Indigenous Australians avoided reporting racial discrimination to authorities for fear of further attacks.

It followed an incident in which a prominent Aboriginal woman was repeatedly asked if she was a Muslim and if she could speak English after being stopped by Border Force staff at an airport. The university-educated woman, who was travelling to a state funeral, missed her connecting flight and had to buy another ticket. The legal service's deputy chief executive, Annette Vickery, said systemic racism against Aborigines was "an invisible barrier wherever you go". "It's on every front," she said. "From being included in a mainstream school to accessing normal services that everybody else accesses, to employment, personal loans, housing, private rentals, even accessing a restaurant. "It is debilitating to people experiencing it, because it is like fighting shadows; always there, but hard to prove."