Cory Bernardi (SA, Australian Conservatives) Share this | Hansard source

We obviously have different views about ambiguity. In the common parlance and the acceptance from most of the dictionary definitions as well as, I think, the reasonable man test that you are also trying to change into 18C—or the reasonable person test, for risk of causing offence—'harass' means multiple instances. You have cited one court case from 1989 in which a Federal Court judge found a single instance. Wouldn't it be much more prudent to use the common and accepted understanding of what 'harass' is rather than open it up to claims where a single Facebook post, a single tweet or a single comment could be claimed to be harassment and subject the individual who had said or written those things to the process of 18C, which is deleterious?