Australia government urged to stop shelving landmark Islamophobia report
The author of a landmark Islamophobia report in Australia has criticised the federal government for delays in acting on its recommendations. The report focuses on concrete steps in public institutions and education, with the special envoy calling on the government to publish a clear timeline.
According to the ABC, the report calls for standardising discrimination complaints in federal agencies, strengthening multicultural and religious literacy modules in school curriculums and publishing annual data on Muslim community access to services. The author says half of these recommendations have not been implemented.
The special envoy says the government has "avoided steps" over the past six months and stresses that publishing recommendations without a binding timeline will not deliver outcomes. Some state governments have begun implementing parts of the report on their own, but federal funding plans remain unclear.
The federal Department of Home Affairs said the report is going through a "careful review" and that a formal response document will be published within the next three months. Civil society organisations are pressing the government to deliver an annual progress report to parliament.
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