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

With all due respect, Senator, there are so many false assumptions in the question I barely know where to begin. Let me start with the last: the government was elected with a promise to repeal section 18C in its current form. The reason we decided to make that commitment and the reason we have decided to publish this exposure draft today is that we do not believe that the freedom of speech protections in the existing section 18C are sufficient and we do not believe that the protections against racism in the existing section 18C are—