Kep Enderby Memorial Lecture 2025

You’re invited to attend the Kep Enderby Memorial Lecture

• Wednesday 29 October | 12:00pm - 1:15pm

• FREE online event

Join us as we mark 50 years since the passage of Australia's Racial Discrimination Act at our annual Kep Enderby Memorial Lecture. A keynote will be delivered by Race Discrimination Commissioner Giridharan Sivaraman, followed by a lively panel discussion about legal and policy reform needed to address racism across workplaces, and the education and justice sectors.

Panelists will include:

• Sally McManus, Secretary Australian Council of Trade Unions 

• Jeswynn Yogaratnam, Commissioner, Northern Territory Anti-Discrimination Commissioner

• Nareen Young, Associate Dean (Indigenous Leadership & Engagement), Professor Indigenous Policy, UTS Business School,  Jumbunna Institute 

About this event

The Kep Enderby Memorial Lecture returns in 2025 to mark a significant milestone, the 50th anniversary of the passage of Australia's Racial Discrimination Act (RDA). This landmark legislation laid the foundation for racial equality in Australia, but after half a century is it time for reform?

This year’s lecture will spotlight racism in workplaces and explore the structural and often invisible nature of racism. It will illustrate how legal and policy reform can drive meaningful change, particularly with the roadmap provided by the National Anti-Racism Framework.  

A key theme will be the Race Discrimination Commissioner’s recent call for a ‘positive duty’ in the Racial Discrimination Act, an approach that requires organisations to actively prevent racism, not just respond to it.

The annual Kep Enderby Memorial Lecture advances public understanding and debate about the Racial Discrimination Act, racism and human rights. It honours the Hon. Kep Enderby QC (1926-2015) who as Attorney-General, introduced into Parliament the Bill which would become the Racial Discrimination Act 1975 (Cth).

Information and registration

The lecture will be delivered online via Zoom. Auslan interpretation and live captioning will be available. 

Speakers and panelists

Giridharan Sivaraman is the Race Discrimination Commissioner.

Prior to becoming Commissioner, Giridharan was Principal Lawyer with Maurice Blackburn, where he ran numerous state and national race discrimination cases. He was also Chair of Multicultural Australia (2021-2024) and a member of the Queensland Multicultural Advisory Council (2019-2024), advocating for the rights of victims of racial vilification.

Sally McManus, Secretary Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU). 

Sally was elected as Secretary of the ACTU in 2017, the first woman to hold this position since the creation of the ACTU in 1927. As Secretary of the ACTU, Sally was instrumental to the introduction of JobKeeper during the pandemic, saw off the Morrison Government, achieved some of the highest minimum wage rises for award wage workers for decades, and oversaw 47 new improvements to workers’ rights during the first 18 months of the Albanese Government.

Nareen Young, Associate Dean (Indigenous Leadership & Engagement).

Nareen is one of Australia's leading and most respected workplace diversity practitioners, thinkers and influencers and lead and managed two diversity peak bodies (Diversity Council Australia and NSW Working Women's Centre), with enormous impact and success for nearly 15 years. She is influenced by her First Nations and culturally diverse heritages in all her work.

Jeswynn Yogaratnam, Commissioner, Northern Territory Anti-Discrimination Commissioner.

Jeswynn Yogaratnam is the Northern Territory Anti-Discrimination Commissioner with over two decades’ experience across law, government, academia, and community. Shaped by his lived experience as ‘the other’ he works to dismantle structural inequities and is leading landmark positive duty reforms that shift organisations from reactive compliance to proactive cultural change.  

Australian Human Rights Commission President Hugh de Kretser will introduce the event and welcome participants.

Hugh has played a critical role advancing human rights in Australia in a range of roles. Before joining the Commission in July 2024, he was the CEO of the Yoorrook Justice Commission, the first formal truth-telling process into historical and ongoing injustices experienced by First Nations people in Victoria. He also worked as the Executive Director of the Human Rights Law Centre and the Executive Officer of the Victorian Federation of Community Legal Centres.

Technical production of this event is proudly managed by The Social Deck.