“I’m so proud to stand beside Craig Foster AM and our City’s multicultural communities to launch the #RacismNOTWelcome campaign,” she said.
“I’m confident local governments across the nation, as the closest level of government to our communities, will continue the good work we do to ensure all people feel a sense of belonging and are equal. Together, we can stand up, call out racism and create places where decision making is shared, and diversity is valued and celebrated.”
Foster said he agreed to front the campaign last year as stories of racism began to pile up at the Addison Road Community Centre, where he volunteers, and described the street signs initiative as a public demonstration of how the issue should no longer be hidden or taboo but visibly acknowledged.
“These signs are the physical manifestation of the underlying principle that racism exists, it is real, damaging and deeply harmful to many Australians and that we all have a responsibility to confront it, every day,” he said.
“I don’t experience racism as part of the racial majority in Australia, but I see it every day. When I speak about asylum seekers and refugees, I see it. When I support the Uluru Statement, I see it.
“When I listen to powerful indigenous leaders talk about the historic racism that underpins generations of First Australians back to colonisation, I see it and better understand how Indigenous Australians face barriers that I will never have to.
“We all have a responsibility to change that. And I believe that social change is best led by the people. From the grass roots, communities, by changing our daily interactions all across the country.”
