‘Where is the evidence?’: critics take aim at NT judge who says antiracism is becoming ‘a religion’

Justice Judith Kelly says ascribing all disadvantage to ‘racism’ is ‘simplistic and trivialises genuine racism which should never be tolerated’. Photograph: Supreme Court of the Northern Territory

Lawyers and academics have criticised comments by a Northern Territory supreme court judge that antiracism was becoming a “religion”, preventing honest discussions about the “epidemic of extreme domestic violence” against Aboriginal women.

In the 26 August speech to a gathering of female lawyers, Justice Judith Kelly said there was a “cultural component” to the violence inflicted on Aboriginal women by Aboriginal men in the territory.