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

The Prime Minister stood up at a press conference in Canberra on 5 August with the Minister for Foreign Affairs and the Attorney-General to announce the government's response to the terrorist threat arising out of the conflict in Iraq and Syria. The Prime Minister said:

When it comes to counter-terrorism, everyone needs to be part of team Australia, and I have to say that the government's proposals to change 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act have become a complication in that respect. I don't want to do anything that puts our national unity at risk at this time, and so those proposals are now off the table

The Prime Minister said that the decision to shelve Senator Brandis's attack on the Racial Discrimination Act was a leadership call that he had made. He went on to talk about what political leadership meant. He said, and this is important:

In the end, leadership is about preserving national unity on the essentials …

Well, I agree with the Prime Minister. But how disappointing it is that the Prime Minister cannot or will not show that kind of leadership. Prime Minister Abbott has failed to show leadership on the Racial Discrimination Act. He said on 5 August that the government's proposed attack on 18C was off the table, but now the Prime Minister has allowed his backbench senators, Bernardi and Smith, to once more menace Australia's multicultural communities with an attack on race-hate protections.

The Leader of the Opposition spoke about the racist attack on a young Muslim woman on a Melbourne train on Monday. The Muslim community has told us that they have seen an alarming spike in racist incidents. The member for Sydney and the member for Watson have recounted other recent attacks on Muslims, on Jews and on Sikhs. At this tense time, when many Australians are particularly fearful of being attacked or vilified or discriminated against because of their race, the Prime Minister allows his backbenchers to tell the community that it is okay to hurl racist insults, and that hate speech must be permitted in our society.

Asked what his position on the Bernardi-Smith bill is in question time yesterday, the best the Prime Minister could manage—

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