THE AUSTRALIAN
Jared Owens
Influential senator Nick Xenophon has rejected moves to change the controversial section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act, amid a renewed push from conservative forces to repeal the restriction on free speech.
The Abbott government had promised the repeal the law — which outlaws speech that is “reasonably likely, in all the circumstances, to offend, insult, humiliate or intimidate” on the basis of “race, colour or national or ethnic origin” — but abandoned the idea in 2014 amid public outcry from ethnic and cultural minorities.
However the issue has been revived by new crossbench senators, including Derryn Hinch and Pauline Hanson’s One Nation Party, who have won support from Liberal senators including Dean Smith and James Paterson.
However Senator Xenophon, whose Nick Xenophon Team has the numbers to thwart any bill opposed also by Labor and the Greens, said he would not support changing the law.
“I can understand some of the arguments put forward. But when you have both the Jewish community and the Arab community on a unity ticket, in the same room saying we think these amendments are reckless, then you know that this is an area that we shouldn’t go down,” he told ABC radio.
Senator Xenophon said his team aimed to vote as a bloc except on issues of “conscience”.
“My Senate colleagues — Stirling Griff and Skye Kakoschke-Moore — we’ve worked very well together for a number of years, so we know each other well, we respect each other, so you can expect that we will be working in a consultative way where we seek consensus on issues,” he said.
“Obviously there might be issues of conscience — personal issues which I think applies to all parties, but the idea is that we stick together and work together as a team.”
Mark Dreyfus, the opposition legal affairs spokesman, demanded the Turnbull government rule out reviving 18C reform as a bargaining chip to woo crossbenchers.
“There’s no need to change section 18C. It’s ill-informed comment that’s led to these kinds of attacks,” Mr Dreyfus told ABC radio.
“You’ve got to look at the way in which it has operated in the last 21 years or so, there have been some hundreds of complaints in that time to the Human Rights Commission, the vast majority of them have been resolved by compulsory conciliation, a handful have gone to court and if you read the court judgments they are all serious cases. It’s worked very well.
“What are these critics saying? That they want to return to race hate speech in the community?”
Mr Dreyfus suggested national security and consumer protection laws were a greater threat to free speech than section 18C.
West Australian Liberal senator Dean Smith is pushing for a parliamentary inquiry to thrash out the changes in the wake of growing calls for change from some of the crossbenchers who will share the balance of power in the upper house.
Dvir Abramovich, chairman of the B’nai B’rith Anti-Defamation Commission, welcomed Senator Xenophon’s stance and urged the Prime Minister to guarantee the racial vilification law would not be changed.
“When hate speech is allowed a free reign, this slow-acting poison robs the intended victims of their dignity and sense of security, be it against Muslims, Hindus, Christians and Jews, and creates a climate of intolerance and prejudice,” Dr Abramovich said.
“Through our work combatting hatred, bigotry and anti-Semitism, we have found that strong racial vilification laws are an essential and necessary tool in addressing and countering the unique harm caused by bias-motivated hate speech and that repealing this law would send the wrong signal and message, especially to young people.”