Australia tarnished by persistent racism, refugee abuse
Dominic Giannini |
The poor treatment of refugees, systemic discrimination and racism have tarred Australia’s human rights record, despite freedoms in the nation being largely upheld.
Racial and ethnic discrimination – including anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, anti-Arab and anti-Palestinian racism – was increasing, as was racism towards Indian and Indigenous communities, the Human Rights Watch 2026 world report found.
The report, released on Wednesday, pointed to a spate of anti-Semitic attacks across Sydney and Melbourne in 2024 and 2025, as well as the December terror attack in which 15 innocent people were killed by two gunmen targeting a Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach.
The human rights group also pointed to an increase in neo-Nazi activities, including anti-immigration rallies in September and the attack on a First Nations protest and gathering site in Melbourne.
Australia was further found to have breached international human rights laws protecting children from incarceration when jail was supposed to be the last resort.
“Three jurisdictions in Australia have passed laws removing this principle,” the report said.
Queensland expanded “adult crime, adult time” laws, treating children convicted of certain offences as adults and subjecting them to harsher penalties.
Victoria announced a plan to introduce similar laws in November.
In Tasmania, children were detained in watch houses where they couldn’t be separated from adults and staff were not trained to work with minors.
“In Western Australia, authorities incarcerated children in a cell block of an adult men’s prison,” the report noted.
More than 700 children are in detention in Australia on a typical day, more than 60 per cent of them Indigenous.
Indigenous rights more broadly were also in the spotlight, with First Nations children more than 12 times more likely to be separated from their families by government agencies.
Western Australian authorities had removed children from mothers fleeing domestic violence and from parents with inadequate housing, instead of being provided with appropriate support, Human Rights Watch said.
Australia has repeatedly faced criticisms by international organisations, including in previous Human Rights Watch reports, for its treatment of refugees and asylum seekers.
“Australia has violated the rights of asylum seekers for decades by forcibly transferring them to offshore detention where they face abuse,” the report said.
The right to protest was also under threat, the not-for-profit group said.
On the international stage, Australia failed to take action against serious human rights abuses, including providing “few concrete actions to press China on serious domestic rights violations or address China’s extraterritorial targeting of overseas critics of the government, including Australian nationals”.
China was found to be systemically denying freedom of expression, association, assembly and religion and persecuting dissidents.
The Albanese government was also inconsistent in its support for international law, the report said, pointing to a failure to sign up to a statement expressing support for the International Criminal Court after US President Donald Trump sanctioned it.
13YARN 13 92 76
Lifeline 13 11 14
AAP
