PM finds Harmony Day isn’t
Howled down for ‘cuddling up’ to One Nation
PRIME Minister Malcolm Turnbull was shouted down in Question Time yesterday – Harmony Day – as he defended proposed changes to race hate speech laws, saying they would strengthen the Racial Discrimination Act.
The words “offend, insult and humiliate” will be changed to “harass and intimidate”, making it harder to prove claims.
Asked why he chose to announce it on Harmony Day, Mr Turnbull had to shout as Labor let loose.
“We are standing up for the freedom of speech that underpins our society, the greatest multicultural society in the world,” the PM said before accusing the Labor Party of painting Australians as racists who could only be held in check by section 18C of the Act.
“We have more respect for the Australian people than the Labor Party does.
“We know our precious freedoms, our freedom of speech, is the very foundation of the nation.”
Earlier in a media conference with Attorney-General George Brandis, the PM mentioned two recent cases, one involving three students at the Queensland University of Technology and one involving the late Bill Leak – former cartoonist at The Australian.
“There has been a great deal of public discussion in recent times about the protection of freedom of speech,” Mr Turnbull said.
“That discussion has focused, in particular, upon section 18C of the RDA, and on the way the commission deals with complaints.
“What we presented today strikes the right balance, defending freedom of speech so that cartoonists will not be hauled up and accused of racism, so that university students won’t be dragged through the courts and have hundreds of thousands of dollars of legal costs imposed on them over spurious claims of racism.
“We are defending Australians from racial vilification by replacing language which ... has lost the credibility a good law needs.
“We need to restore confidence to the Racial Discrimination Act and to the Human Rights Commission’s administration of it.”
Shadow attorney-general Mark Dreyfus denied the changes would make the law stronger.
“He’s talking nonsense in suggesting that this law is a strengthening of protections,” Mr Dreyfus said.
“It’s not. Let me repeat, it is a weakening. It is a weakening of protection against racist hate speech.
Greens Leader Richard Di Natale said Mr Turnbull was trying to “cuddle up” to One Nation and appease the right wing of his party by changing section 18C.
“You only need to look at the people who are pushing to water down 18C to realise this is a cultural and ideological war masquerading as a free speech crusade,” Senator Di Natale said.
In parliament, Social Services Minister Christian Porter said: “The standard and clarity that you get from a word like ‘harassment’ is going to make it clearer from the very outset what sort of complaint is going to be properly sustainable, and that is very important, because what we have at the moment is complete lack of clarity as to what is the standard for a sustainable complaint.”
The test to be applied by the Human Rights Commission will be the standard of a “reasonable member of the community” and the commission will get more powers to filter complaints that are deemed to be frivolous or without merit.