Mark Dreyfus (Isaacs, Australian Labor Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Robertson for her question. Around one in five Australians have told the Human Rights Commission that they have experienced race hate talk such as verbal abuse, racial slurs or name calling. More than one in 20 Australians say that they have been physically attacked because of their race. These are concerning statistics, and I am sure they will be of concern to all those in this House. Our government is committed to standing up against racial hatred in Australia. We believe that speech based on racial hatred must not be tolerated. Racist hate speech is a threat to the dignity of individuals, to communities and, ultimately, to the security of the Australian people. We all know from bitter experience what hate speech can lead to.

In 1994 the Keating government introduced hate-speech provisions into the Commonwealth Racial Discrimination Act. In introducing these laws the then Attorney-General, Michael Lavarch, was clear about their purpose, saying:

The Racial Hatred Bill is about the protection of groups and individuals from threats of violence and the incitement of racial hatred, which leads inevitably to violence.

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No Australian should live in fear because of his or her race, colour or national or ethnic origin.

For almost 20 years these provisions have served these noble purposes, helping to protect Australians and everyone in the Australian community by making hate speech unlawful. The provisions have been used in a number of serious cases, including to prevent Holocaust deniers from publishing their poisonous falsehoods. Freedom of speech is also a value that the Australian Labor Party holds dear, and that is why our laws against hate speech contain broad defences to ensure that open debate and political communication in our country are not unnecessarily constrained.

In April this year, the Prime Minister demonstrated our government's commitment to stand up against hate speech and discrimination by signing on behalf of our nation the London Declaration on Combating Antisemitism. The declaration commits its signatories to take meaningful legislative action to combat not only anti-Semitism but also discrimination against any minority, and in particular the declaration commits parliamentarians to legislate effective hate crime legislation and make illegal incitement to racial hatred. We already have such laws in Australia in the form of the hate speech provisions of the Racial Discrimination Act, and I welcome the decision of coalition members to follow the Prime Minister's lead in signing the London declaration. I very much hope that this means that we have bipartisan support for laws that already prohibit hate speech in our nation. (Time expired)

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