Craig Kelly (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Early last year, on 7 January, we watched our television sets and were horrified at the massacre by Islamic terrorists of cartoonists at Charlie Hebdo. We thought: how could it be that people could be so offended and insulted about a mere cartoon that they would take such drastic action? But that was not the only instance of cartoonists being attacked around the world in recent years.

The Syrian cartoonist, Ali Farzat, had his hands broken by Assad-supporting militia after he drew a cartoon showing the Syrian leader, Assad, fleeing with a briefcase, running to a car with the engine running and being driven away by Gaddafi. There was also the female cartoonist, Atena Farghadani, who spent 18 months in prison in Iran because she drew cartoons on the subject of birth control which criticised members of the Iranian government. There is also the Malaysian cartoonist, known as Zunar, who was arrested earlier this year and is facing 43 years in jail because he drew cartoons criticising the government and the waste of public funds.

We think to ourselves: how could it be that someone holding coloured pencils or textas could be seen as a threat that needs government intervention? Yet, this is happening in our country today. We have had the Australian Human Rights Commission out soliciting for complaints against a cartoonist in Bill Leak. We have the Australian Human Rights Commission actually going after him. As the editorial in The Australian today said:

It is this process, as much as any intended outcome, that looms as a punishment in such cases and that goes a long way to stifling free speech. The penalty for raising unpopular, unpalatable or controversial ideas or opinions can be the imposition of such a government-funded, burdensome, legally sanctioned, time-consuming and infuriating process.

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