Lisa Singh (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Shadow Attorney General) Share this | Hansard source

I speak to this matter of public importance because it is clearly about the Abbott government's confused and chaotic approach to hate speech but on top of that the division within the coalition on its approach to hate speech. None of us in this Senate will forget Senator Brandis's now infamous claims that 'People do have a right to be bigots, you know.' I am sure that Senator Brandis's coalition colleagues will never forget this clumsy and offensive remark that he made at that time. Senator Brandis's judgement at that time came under attack from that very moment on as he attempted to implement his foolish commitment to destroying section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act.

But what we have had since that time is chaos and confusion on the side of the government—so much so that we had the backflip on Senator Brandis's commitment that he and his colleague Andrew Bolt wanted to see change in the Racial Discrimination Act last year. There was a backflip on that put in place by pressure from the Prime Minister, and since that time it has seemed the government wants to go even harder to restrict freedom of speech for certain ethnic groups in our community.

You have that going on in one side of the executive of the government. On the other side you have coalition members—backbenchers like Senator Smith, for example—

Senator Edwards interjecting—

and Senator Edwards, as he points to himself—wanting to bring it all back on again with section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act. We all recall very clearly how categorical the Attorney-General was that a government should never, in the interests of freedom of speech, be in the business of penalising people who hold objectionable views, in saying so absolutely ignoring section 18D of our Racial Discrimination Act. Having said that, now what we have is the government's acceptance of objectionable views that does not extend to objectionable views expressed by certain ethnic groups—notably, for example, the Muslim community. To quote Mike Seccombe in The Saturday Paper:

“People do have a right to be bigots, you know.” But only, it now appears, if they are government-friendly bigots.

When will this government say what it means and do what it says? We have had backflip after backflip if we want to talk about the GP tax or paid parental leave. Now there is section 18C, which we thought perhaps was dead, buried and cremated just like we thought Work Choices was, but it does not take long before it starts raising its ugly head again. They are all over the place on this issue.

We know clearly that after coming into government Senator Brandis published an exposure draft of his bigots' charter. Media reports followed, soon revealing that he had not originally intended to adopt a consultative approach to winding back section 18C at all; rather, Senator Brandis's preference was to ram legislation through the parliament without even a hint of public consultation. Well, the public consultation that he then put in place was pretty much a joke anyway. But, having said that, the broader community took him at his word and participated in that public consultation in a fairly big way, so much so that the Attorney-General got bombarded with so many submissions—submissions that he never released publicly, though some of the submitters themselves did—and we know clearly that the overwhelming majority of those submissions were against changes to 18C. It was that pressure by so many ethnic communities, so many people in the broader community, the legal fraternity and the NGO sector that led to Prime Minister Tony Abbott intervening on Senator Brandis's grand plan to wind back section 18C and ditch the whole thing.

We have had a ditching of the whole thing since August, but now we know the rumblings are there. Now we know that it is back on the agenda, isn't it, Senator Edwards? Isn't it, Senator Smith? And we know that we have the support of the crossbench in doing so. Senator Brandis needs to come into this chamber and make clear what this government's policy on racial discrimination laws in this country is. Where are they today? What is the weather today? Is it raining? Is it sunshine? Because it seems to change on a daily basis, just like every other policy issue this government puts in place. They are not fit to govern because they are a rabble. They do not know what they stand for; they are all over the place. In the meantime, it is people of various different racial backgrounds who are the victims of this government's delusional approach when it comes to racial discrimination laws. It is Labor's hope that our current racial discrimination laws—which include section 18C and section 18D, which addresses freedom of speech—remain as is. As they have continued to work for a number of years now, they do not need to be touched.

We in the Labor Party believe that Australia's political leaders ought to focus their energies on bringing people together—on inclusiveness and protecting the social cohesion that underpins our proud and successful multicultural country. That is what leaders should be doing, not trying to create division among various community groups; not trying to create division amongst the broader community. It is really disappointing to hear some voices from within the coalition who seem to feel their energies are better directed at prosecuting an agenda of intolerance, bigotry, fear and hatred than an agenda of inclusiveness, compassion and equality.

Section 18C has been used to combat the vilest forms of hate speech. Those coalition senators should read some of the case law in this area and realise that. Hate speech is behaviour the Labor Party believes has no place in a civilised society. I will refresh those coalition senators' memories on some of that case law. There is the case of Jones v Tobin, when section 18C was used to combat infamous Holocaust denier Frederick Tobin who sickeningly claimed that there is serious doubt that the Holocaust actually occurred. Shame! That case law used section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act. Before coalition senators come into this place with a bill which removes that provision, they need to read back through that case law and think seriously about what they are trying to do to this country by removing those protections as they currently stand.

The Labor Party does not believe this sickening attack has any place in Australian society. If coalition senators want to vote to support Frederick Tobin and his ilk, then the Australian people will judge them accordingly. The Labor Party opposes this type of behaviour. Today, coalition senators in this place must decide how they see this provision in that light. They must reflect on that case law when they are reflecting on their position and their beliefs, and their so-called 'principled' position on racial discrimination law. They could also, perhaps, talk to the Attorney and the Prime Minister, because the last thing the Australian community heard from them was that section 18C was off the table.

So where is the coalition on this position? It is in a completely different place to the Labor Party, which stands for inclusion and for section 18C remaining in our Racial Discrimination Act.