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

Speech that incites hatred and vilifies people because of their race or ethnicity has no place in Australia. The New South Wales government has shown that it understands this in announcing changes to strengthen racial vilification laws. The New South Wales Attorney-General has rightly pointed out that such changes are necessary to 'safeguard our inclusive, pluralist, and harmonious community' and that 'we cannot allow violent race hate speech to fan flames of division and tear our community apart.' The proposed changes in New South Wales have been welcomed by community groups.

By marked contrast, federal Liberal senators Dean Smith and Cory Bernardi are co-sponsoring a bill that would weaken the longstanding federal protections against racial vilification in section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act. They were joined in this attempt last week by Liberal Senators Back, Seselja and McDonald. Section 18C plays a critical role in maintaining a cohesive, harmonious community. There is no sensible argument for changing this law which has served Australia well for more than 20 years. Given the Prime Minister's recent statements emphasising the importance of 'mutual respect' in combating radicalisation, Labor calls on the Prime Minister to show some leadership and rein in his backbenchers who want to give a green light to racist speech that insults and offends, and to show some leadership and pledge support for section 18C in its current form. (Time expired)

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