The Racial Hatred Act: Case study 5

Introduction:

• interpretation of complex research findings, surveys, and polls
  in news stories

Reports:

• 'Federal laws blamed for Sydney's
  welfare ghettos', Paul Sheehan, The Sydney Morning Herald, 1
  July 96
• 'Ethnic ghettos claim 'irresponsible',
  Illawarra Mercury, 2 July 96
• 'Urban Ghettos', Melbourne
  Yarra Leader, 8 July 96

Comment:

• The following journalists/editors comment on their coverage of Ernest
  Healy's report.
• The Sydney Morning Herald's
  Paul Sheehan
• AAP's Margaret McDonald
• The Illawarra Mercury's Peter
  Cullen
• The Melbourne Yarra Leader's Bob
  Osburn
• Ernest Healy, researcher
  and author of 'Welfare benefits and residential concentrations amongst
  recently arrived migrant communities' on how his report was misinterpreted
  by the media.
• The Federation of Ethnic Communities Councils
  of Australia comments on the harm done to communities through
  the use of loaded language and offensive terminology in the media.

Please note that none of the reports in the case studies have been the
subject of complaints or queries under the Racial Hatred Act.

The Federation of Ethnic Communities
Councils of Australia (FECCA) comments on what it sees as the harm done
to communities through the use of loaded language and offensive terminology:

The articles on Healy's report use words incorrectly, for example 'ghettos'. Other inflammatory words such as 'rorts', 'abusers' and 'bogus' are used in a manner that appears to be aimed at instilling a sense of outrage in the reader. The use of terms such as 'chronic welfare recipients' are more loaded than 'long-term recipients' and also seem to suggest at least an unsolvable problem. The articles infer there is something unsavoury about various ethnic groups concentrating in a particular area. While the 1991 Census indicated that 11 per cent of the Fairfield population was born in Vietnam, nowhere near the proportions the article seems to imply, no effort is made to explain the reasons people of a particular birthplace group would want to live near each other. Some of these reasons are: the distribution of cheaper housing, initial place of arrival, the desire to be close to family members and others from their home country and the likelihood of more appropriate services in areas where there are higher numbers of people from their birthplace. While the unemployment rates for a number of the communities stated is high, these are related to a range of factors, which are not explained in the articles, and the rate tends to decline with length of settlement.

FECCA illustrates how news stories on research such as that presented
in Ernest Healy's report could be more balanced, accurate, and sensitive
to racial issues:

• less use of inflammatory language, in this case 'rorts' and 'bogus'
• avoidance of inaccurate use of terminology, eg. 'ghettos'
• inclusion of other academic views regarding the issues raised in the
  research and a more thorough and accurate use of data
• some exploration of the issues confronting the communities in question,
  such as the Vietnamese, when they arrive in Australia and why they might
  settle in particular areas
• inclusion of a community, Mayoral or Ministerial perspective
• less use of unpublished data and unnamed sources; it's pretty difficult
  for the reader to critique something that is unsighted and essentially
  unavailable.

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