Racism Out Of Politics

In the first quarter of 2025, DeCo ran its Racism Out Of Politics campaign. The campaign was Democracy in Colour’s urgent call to action aimed at stopping the practice of using communities of colour as political scapegoats.

The core belief of the campaign was simple: For too long, politicians have relied on racist and discriminatory campaign tactics to divide voters and distract from their own policy failures. These xenophobic messages not only harm communities but also directly inform the regressive, discriminatory policies and legislation that are introduced to parliament for decades to come.

The campaign has two main objectives:

1. End Racist Campaigns: To demand that all politicians and electoral candidates cease using racist, xenophobic, and discriminatory tactics during election campaigns and throughout their political careers.
2. Focus on Real Solutions: To shift the political debate away from scapegoating and towards meaningful discussions about real, long-term solutions for the issues affecting everyone.

To achieve this, the campaign mobilised community members to ask their election candidates to sign an Antiracist Pledge, publicly committing them to anti-racist conduct and policy work. You can see the response below.

Earlier in March 2025, an incredible panel of experts with lived experience from across the country came together to discuss racism, politics and power. Want to learn more about what racism in politics looks like and what we can do about it? This is an important conversation for anyone engaging in politics.