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

The discussion proceeded on the false assumption that Australian law—at least the law of this parliament—did make provision for racial vilification and hate speech. In fact it did not. And even the shadow Attorney-General, who should have known better, has serially fallen into that trap. For the first time now, if these amendments are enacted, racial vilification will be specifically prohibited under Commonwealth law.