Kim Carr (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

This is a proposition that, I'm afraid, hasn't been thought through in any great depth. This is a matter that's at the core of the High Court proceedings at the moment in regard to the Ridd matter. These are questions that go beyond the issue of free speech protections. They can't be overridden by other important workplace protections such as antidiscrimination legislation and policies of workplace occupational health and safety, or, for that matter, on measures such as hate speech and questions in regard to the incitement of violence. These are not matters that can be overridden in regard to discrimination or defamation. For a senator to suggest that we should do that is an extraordinary proposition.

These measures are quite important to the way in which universities function. As the chair of Universities Australia made clear, it goes to the question of the way in which academics communicate with one another as much as anything else. They are communities where you're able to impart fundamental knowledge and skills and to pass that on to new generations, and where you are able to vigorously debate matters—uncomfortable matters—but to do so with respect and courtesy and compassion and an understanding that you are expected to act in an expert and coherent manner. I'm afraid that, in the situation that has led to the circumstances in regard to James Cook University, those matters were absent. It wasn't a freedom of speech issue at all; it was a question about the way in which people sought to operate outside their areas of knowledge, their critiques, their dialogue, their capacity to treat each other. It goes to all the other matters I have mentioned, to important workplace protections that exist for all employees within the university system.

So Labor is not going to support this amendment. It's been ill-considered. It's part of an ideological obsession rather than a proper consideration of how we should ensure that our universities are run properly and are able to do their job properly for the advancement of the nation.