George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Hansard source

Through you, Mr President, I say to Senator Di Natale that there are many on my side of politics who find his views intolerant and preposterous. But we would not for a moment suggest that he should not be at liberty to express them. The second thing we intend to do, Senator Di Natale, is to introduce into Commonwealth law, for the very first time ever, a prohibition on racial vilification. The mechanism that was adopted in 1995 by a previous Labor government to deal with the problem was, through section 18C, the political censorship method. That is never the way to deal with a social problem—to ban people from expressing their views. The way to deal with a social problem is to ensure that we have, as in this case, appropriately framed legislation which is respectful of freedom of speech but targets the very problem at issue.