Deborah Mutund, an Australian National, is known as the Queen of Nationality, due to her long tenure in the public sector. As a member of the Human Rights Institute, Mutund has been working hard to bring about changes for women and ethnic minorities within the legal system of Australia. She has also managed to gain the support of members of the community in promoting the rights of nationalities, cultures and ages. This has resulted in major alterations in the legislation that pertains to different age groups and nationalities.
Age and Nationality discrimination have been major concerns for many years now. As a woman in the legal profession, Mutund has often found herself the target of racial and age discrimination when it comes to cases involving work as a barrister or an advocate with the law. Those who are usually targeted include people from ethnic backgrounds that have been historically under-represented in the legal profession. The increasing age and ethnicity gap between members of various nationalities in the legal profession also contribute to these problems. With the increasing globalisation of trade and business communities, there is also a trend that nationalities are losing their relevance when it comes to the legal field. As younger professionals choose careers that involve working with international business firms and/or multinationals, they too are threatened by increasing age and nationalities exclusion in the legal profession.
Being a National Labor Senator Deborah Mutund has had a front row seat to such trends. She has witnessed first hand the prejudice that some lawyers and others in the legal profession have towards certain groups of people, such as members of the Aussie Nationality, Asian, Hispanic and Native backgrounds. In one case, a judge was heard saying that he couldn’t consider a woman who was multicultural because he didn’t see her as a real Australian. Such intolerance is not new. What is more concerning now is that attitudes in the legal profession are being publicly questioned once again, as the government seeks to appoint more people of a multicultural background into important positions within the legal profession.