Giridharan Sivaraman: Australia's New Race Discrimination Commissioner

Giridharan Sivaraman, a prominent Indian-origin lawyer in Australia, has been appointed the new Race Discrimination Commissioner (RDC) of the Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC). The RDC in Australia is able to deal with all types of racial discrimination.

Sivaraman will replace Chin Tan:

• Giridharan Sivaraman will replace Chin Tan as the AHRC's new Race Discrimination Commissioner.
• Sivaraman's tenure as RDC of the AHRC will be for 5 years. Sivaraman will take charge as the RDC from March 4, 2024.

Function of Race Discrimination Commission (RDC):

• The Commission is responsible for promoting understanding, tolerance and harmony among all sections of Australian society.

Sivaraman is the President of Multicultural Australia:

• Giridharan Sivaraman is currently the Chairman of Multicultural Australia and Principal Counsel at Maurice Blackburn. Sivaraman heads the firm's Queensland employment law department at Maurice Blackburn.
• Australia's Attorney General Mark Dreyfus congratulated Sivaraman on his appointment on 5 February 2024.

Works of Giridharan Sivaraman:

• Sivaraman has prosecuted numerous state and national race discrimination cases in Australia. He has led a free compensation scheme for low paid 7-Eleven workers. Many of these workers were from migrant backgrounds.

Indian-origin Varun Ghosh elected to Australian Senate:

• Varun Ghosh, another barrister of Indian origin in Australia, has been elected to his post in the Australian Senate in the 2nd week of February.
• Varun Ghosh has been elected by the Labor Party to officially represent Western Australia (WA).
• Varun Ghosh has replaced outgoing Senator Patrick Dodson. Varun Ghosh, 38, has been a barrister at Francis Burt Chambers.
• In the 2019 federal election, Ghosh ranked fifth on the Australian Labor Party's Senate ticket in Western Australia, yet did not secure an election.

About Varun Ghosh:

• Ghosh joined the Labor Party in Perth at the age of 17, after his parents moved from India in the 1980s, news website WA Today reports.
• Later he started working as a neurologist.
• Ghosh attained Arts and Law degrees from the University of WA, and pursued further studies as a Commonwealth Scholar in Law at the University of Cambridge.
• He previously worked as a finance lawyer in New York and as a consultant for the World Bank in Washington, DC.
• In 2015, he went back to Australia and started working with King & Wood Mallesons, handling legal cases for banks, resource businesses, and building firms.