Jacinta Collins (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Cabinet Secretary) Share this | Hansard source

The Australian people have lived with the threatened repeal of section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act for far too long. It is time to bring this issue to a head once and for all. The Labor Party's position on 18C is crystal clear. The Labor Party introduced 18C and the Labor Party will fight to retain it. We have campaigned in the streets to protect 18C and we will vote in this parliament to oppose any attempt to weaken the vital protections it contains against the scourge of racist hate speech.

We in the Labor Party believe that 18C is a critical element of Australia's anti-discrimination framework, which has served this country well for 20 years. What does that tell us about our leadership today? This is an area where we have had general community consensus for 20 years until we got the Abbott government. Section 18C strengthens the rich fabric of Australia's successful multicultural community, and we cannot afford to risk this. Section 18C appropriately balances freedom of speech with the right of all Australians to live in dignity and free from bigotry —no rights for bigots—and the destructive, divisive effects of racially-motivated hate speech. This is our position, and we are proud of it. We have never waivered on it and we never will. Almost two decades of experience have unequivocally demonstrated that this is the right policy for Australia.

The Labor Party is not alone in its support for 18C. In recent months thousands of Australians have rallied behind 18C to affirm their support for tolerance and social cohesion and voiced their opposition to bigotry and hatred. These voices have been heard in the parliament and have powerfully resonated at the highest levels of government. Public opinion polls and, embarrassingly, even statistics released by Senator Brandis's own department clearly show that the vast majority of Australians strongly oppose any moves to water down protections against racist hate speech. The Labor Party's position, as I have said, is crystal clear and the mood of the Australian people is beyond doubt. But, unfortunately, the Liberal Party's position is much more questionable. It is murky, indeed. Senator Brandis and then Opposition Leader Tony Abbott promised Andrew Bolt they would repeal 18C in 2011, after he was found guilty of offending, insulting, humiliating and intimidating 'fair-skinned aborigines'.

After coming to government, Senator Brandis published an exposure draft of what I will call his 'bigots' charter'. But even at this early stage, the Liberal Party's position on 18C was in flux. Media reports revealed that Senator Brandis had been rolled by his Cabinet colleagues, who had doubts about the wisdom of repealing 18C. These reports exposed Senator Brandis's original intentions. We learnt that he originally intended to ram legislation through the parliament without even a hint of public consultation. Embarrassingly, he was smacked down by Cabinet and forced to first publish an exposure draft to gauge the extent of community anger—and, boy, have we seen that.

The concern is, though, that Mr Abbott has now decided that that level of community anger cannot be borne at the same time as the level of community anger over the budget. He has described the issues around 18C as having become 'a complication', but the issues involved in 18C are much more than a complication. The Senate and the Australian public at large deserve more respect than that. Mr Abbott tries to close down one front while he deals with the issues around the budget—a weakened government could ill afford further conflict such as the furious reaction that has occurred to the budget. But the Prime Minister has not ruled out proceeding with plans to repeal 18C in the future, if the political environment becomes more favourable. Australians who hoped to have closure on this shameful episode in political history are set to be disappointed. That disappointment has transformed into renewed fear and anger after a group of senators, including the Attorney-General's Liberal Party colleague, Senator Bernardi—who we are not hearing from today—announced that he would soon sponsor a private bill to resurrect plans to weaken 18C in favour of their belief in a right to be bigots. (Time expired)