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

I will not speak long on this, because I think there is one main point that needs to be highlighted. We have heard lots of flowery language and lots of debate amongst members of the government with each other, but the critical issue here is that the change in this schedule reduces the protections that are afforded to victims of racial discrimination and racial hate speech by narrowing the scope of behaviour that may constitute offending conduct. Labor does not support that narrowing of scope and, by the amendments on the running sheet here, it is clear that the Australian Greens and the Nick Xenophon Team similarly will not support that narrowing.

We could spend hours more listening to this flowery language and debate about the principles of free speech and harassment, but these provisions have stood the test of time, of two decades. They have, as was highlighted earlier, the support, as shown by polling, of 80 per cent of Australians. This esoteric debate amongst members of the government should stop. Senators, in supporting Labor, the Australian Greens and the Nick Xenophon Team in opposing schedule 1, will stop this waste of the Senate's time that has been occurring this evening.