James Paterson (Victoria, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I have a related follow-up question. I understand that the person who conducted the inquiry on behalf of the then Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission into racist violence was Irene Moss. She was recently interviewed by The Australian newspaper journalist Chris Merritt, who has followed this issue with great interest and with great accuracy, in my view. In his interview with Irene Moss, she told him that in fact her view and the view of the inquiry was that it would be a bad idea to go down that route of preventing mere offence and insult, because that could lead to the law being applied in a way it was not intended and being applied in a broader way than was intended, and that it may end up capturing conduct that was not in fact intended. She reiterated her view from the early 1990s again today, saying that she believed her original view has been proven correct by the application of the law in the courts, particularly in recent cases, and that she was right then to warn against the adoption of a law which sought to limit offence based merely on offence and insulting conduct.

One of the primary instigators of this original law has warned against specifically the route the law went down. She has since said that all her fears about this law have come true and has suggested that we revisit this law and reflect its original intentions. Why is it, in your view, that many people have said in this debate that only those who want to unleash racism are in favour of changing this law? I presume they are not referring to Irene Moss, and I presume they do believe that Irene Moss wants to unleash racism.