On 2 November 2026 the University of New England's (UNE) Executive Team (ExT) published its Statement on Racism and Racial Discrimination.

The Higher Education Standards Framework Amendment (Threshold Standards) Instrument 2026 introduces a new standard, section 6.4 (Preventing and responding to racism), which applies to all registered higher education providers from 1 January 2027. ExT members understand that the sector is required to formalise a range of matters in relation to discrimination and racism to meet this standard. To complete the formalisation, a significant and important consultation process must be undertaken. This is not a simple matter and will take time because we wish to ensure it is done well at UNE.

ExT has chosen not to wait for that date. Triggered by specific examples of racism on our campus, and the time necessary to finalise a whole-of-university approach, members of ExT, after significant discussion and deliberation, have decided that we, as a group of individuals, wish to make an immediate, clear and unambiguous statement to our staff, students and communities.

Racism is present in Australian institutions, and universities are no exception. National inquiries and the experiences of our own staff and students have made this clear. Whether it appears as an overt incident or as repeated, everyday exclusion, racism harms people's safety, wellbeing and sense of belonging. It shapes who succeeds at this University, as a student or as a member of staff, and who leaves. We cannot address what we have not first agreed to name, and that is why this statement matters.

The statement sets out a definition of racism and ten tenets that explain how it operates.

The statement makes clear that racism is more than individual prejudice: it can be built into the policies, practices and assumptions we often take for granted, in our workplaces and in our teaching and learning. It can operate without anyone intending it. For that reason, the statement asks us to judge racism by its impact rather than by anyone's intent.

Subtle and repeated slights cause real harm, wherever they occur physically or online, between colleagues, on placement or online. Naming racism often carries risk. The statement recognises that staff and students who experience racism hold authoritative expertise; our work against racism is best led by and designed with them.

This general statement is the foundation for further work. The first of the specific statements to follow will address racism towards Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, and statements on antisemitism, Islamophobia and other forms of racial discrimination and vilification will follow, each developed with broad consultation and specific involvement of the staff and students in our community who have lived experience of them.

I ask you to read the statement and to consider what it asks of you, whether in how you teach, supervise and make decisions, work alongside colleagues, or learn and engage with fellow students. I especially ask those of us who have not experienced racism to read it with humility and a willingness to listen.

Professor Chris Moran
Vice-Chancellor and Chief Executive Officer

The Executive Statement

Racism and racial discrimination are enduring injustices in Australia. They erode human dignity, equity, and rights, and they are present in Australian institutions, including universities. This statement sets out how we understand racism, so that every member of our community, including those who have never experienced racism themselves, can recognise it, understand its effects, and take responsibility for addressing it.

This statement is our foundational commitment to naming, challenging, and dismantling racism in all its forms, and to cultivating an environment in which every member of our community is valued, respected, and afforded equitable opportunity, on campus and online.

For the purposes of this statement, racism is defined as:

When an individual or organisation, through the exercise of societal power based on race, discriminates against, excludes, or disadvantages a racially marginalised person because of their race, colour, descent, nationality, ethnicity, religion, and/or immigrant status. Racism can be unconscious or conscious, active or passive, obvious or subtle.

This definition rests on the following tenets:

1. The unique position of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples hold a unique position as the First Peoples of this continent. Racism directed at Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples is grounded in the specific history of colonisation, dispossession, and exclusionary policy in Australia, and it persists in contemporary institutional life. There can be no genuine equity or inclusion in an Australian institution while Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people continue to experience racism. Anti-racism work in Australia therefore begins here.
2. Racism in the Australian context. Australia’s history, including colonisation, the attempted genocide and dispossession of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, and the White Australia policy, has created systems in which some groups hold power, advantage, and a sense of belonging that others are denied. Who is racialised, and how, is not fixed: it shifts across time and context. Groups racialised as ‘outside the norm’ in Australia have included, at different times and in different ways, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, migrants from Asia, Africa, Europe and the Middle East, and people of Jewish and Muslim faith and background. Understanding racism in Australia requires understanding this history and how it continues to shape the present.
3. Antisemitism. Antisemitism is racism directed at Jewish people. It encompasses prejudice, hostility, discrimination, and vilification towards Jewish people because of their Jewishness, whether expressed through descent, ethnicity, religion, or culture, each of which falls within our definition of racism. Antisemitism has a long history in Australia, from immigration restriction and social exclusion to the conspiracy theories and stereotypes that continue to circulate today, and it has intensified in recent years, including in higher education settings. Because many Jewish Australians may be racialised as white in everyday contexts, antisemitism is sometimes wrongly dismissed as something other than racism. In fact, it operates through the racialisation of Jewishness itself, and its harms, including exclusion, vilification, and threats to safety and belonging, are racial harms.
4. Islamophobia. Islamophobia is racism directed at Muslim people and those perceived to be Muslim. While religion is one of its dimensions, Islamophobia operates through racialisation: people are targeted on the basis of visible and perceived markers of Muslim identity, including dress, name, appearance, and ethnicity, regardless of their actual faith or observance. This is why its harms extend to people who are not Muslim but are perceived to be, and why, in Australia, its targets are disproportionately women who are visibly identifiable because they wear the hijab. Islamophobia in Australia encompasses vilification, harassment, exclusion, and stereotyping, including the persistent association of Muslim identity with threat, and it manifests in workplaces, public spaces, and higher education settings, on campus and online. Because religion, ethnicity, and descent all fall within our definition of racism, Islamophobia is racism, not merely religious intolerance.
5. Power and systemic entrenchment. Racism is more than individual prejudice. It is prejudice combined with societal power, embedded in policies, procedures, and everyday practices that create advantage for racially privileged groups and disadvantage for racially marginalised groups. This shapes life chances: access to education, employment, promotion, wealth, safety, and social standing. Because it is built into systems we take for granted, systemic racism can operate without any individual intending it.
6. Impact, not intent. The presence and harm of racism are determined by impact, not by intent. A person does not need to hold racist beliefs, or to mean harm, for their actions – or the policies they administer – to produce racially unequal outcomes. Well-intentioned conduct, including so-called ‘benevolent’ behaviour, can diminish and harm the person on the receiving end. What matters is acknowledging the impact and changing the behaviour, practice, or policy. Awareness of that impact cannot be assumed. Naming racism often carries risk for the person harmed, so those responsible may never be told of the harm they have caused. Responsibility therefore does not begin only when impact is pointed out: it includes actively seeking feedback, listening without defensiveness, and building mechanisms that make it safe for impact to be named.
7. The many forms racism takes. Racism can be interpersonal (between people), systemic (built into policies, procedures, and practices), and cultural (embedded in the assumptions, norms, and worldviews an institution treats as ordinary). It can be obvious, such as slurs, vilification, or violence, or subtle, such as repeated everyday slights, exclusion, stereotyping, tokenism, and cultural appropriation. Subtle racism experienced repeatedly causes harm equivalent to overt racism. Racism occurs in physical and digital environments alike: on campus, online, and in every setting where our community works and studies.
8. Understanding without lived experience. Most people who have never experienced racism underestimate how common it is and how deeply it affects those who live with it. Not having experienced racism is itself a form of racial privilege: it means never having had to navigate these barriers, not that one has never struggled. We ask every member of our community, particularly those without lived experience of racism, to approach this work with humility, to build their own racial literacy, and to listen to, believe, and learn from colleagues and students who experience racism.
9. Centring lived experience. People who experience racism hold authoritative expertise about it. They know what it looks like in all its forms, what it feels like, and what effect it has. Effective anti-racism action must be led by, and designed with, people with lived experience of racial marginalisation, and their contribution, including the additional, often invisible, cultural load they carry, must be recognised.
10. Precision in language. We use precise, race-specific language, including ‘racialised’, ‘racially privileged’, and ‘racially marginalised’, rather than euphemisms such as ‘cultural diversity’. Naming race and racism directly is a precondition of addressing them. At the same time, we respect each person’s right to identify with the terms they are most comfortable with.

Together, these tenets express our shared understanding of racism and the responsibility every member of our community carries to recognise it, name it, and act against it.