Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

And Senator Williams agrees with me, just as I agreed with much of what he said. So it is therefore very disappointing that the effect of the changes that the government is seeking to make here will be to create an environment in which people can be much less respectful of others on the basis of their race. It will remove the current prohibition on people offending, insulting or humiliating others on the basis of their race. That is the effect of the change that the government is proposing to make.

Currently, section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act prevents people from racially offending, insulting or humiliating others. I would have thought that in a modern society and in a respectful society all of us could agree that it is not appropriate and that it should be against the law for people to racially offend, insult or humiliate others. But of course we know that over the last few months a rump of the extreme right of the Liberal Party, in cahoots with certain media outlets and certain weird barristers from Queensland who shuffle around in duffel coats chasing shadows and making up straw men, have gotten together to make this a crusade which, unfortunately, this weak Prime Minister has jumped on. The effect of this change is to say that it will be okay in future for people to racially offend, insult and humiliate others, and what will not be okay is for people to racially harass others. Of course people should not be able to racially harass others, and that is exactly what the legislation as it currently stands is designed to prevent.

What we really have here is yet another pathetic backdown from a Prime Minister who used to believe in something. He used to believe in climate change, and now he has given in to the extreme right of his party. He used to believe in marriage equality, and he has now given in to the extreme right of his party. He used to believe in strong laws that prevented people from racially offending, insulting and humiliating people, but again he has had to cave in to the right wing of his party. It is no wonder that Australians have really given up any hope for this Prime Minister. If you are going to lead a country you actually have to be able to show people that you believe in something and that you will stand and fight for it. Instead, we have a Prime Minister who continually caves in to his extreme right.

None of us knows exactly what it is going to mean to racially harass someone; we will have to wait and see how courts interpret that. All we really have to go on so far is the comments of one of the people who has really driven this campaign, the so-called journalist Andrew Bolt. He was on Sky last night and he speculated that perhaps what would amount to racial harassment is making offensive, insulting and humiliating racial remarks about people maybe five times. Is that correct? Is what we are saying here that it is okay to racially humiliate someone once, it is okay to do it twice, it is okay to do it three or four times, but it is not until you get to five times that it amounts to something that is actually unacceptable in society? I disagree with that. I think it is actually unacceptable to racially humiliate, offend or insult someone once, let alone five times.

In the limited time I have left, I just want to deal quickly with a couple of the false arguments that have been put up by the government for why this change is needed. Firstly, they have said that the current law means that people cannot make small insulting remarks without breaking the law. That is just not true. No lesser person than the current High Court Chief Justice Susan Kiefel has said that the current law only applies to conduct that has 'profound and serious effects, not to be likened to mere slights'. It is just wrong that this law is restraining small insults.

The free speech argument is also wrong. The current section 18D of the act provides lots of exemption for people making fair political comment, and that would remain in place now. (Time expired)

Question agreed to.