Mark Furner (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Attorney-General, Senator Brandis. I refer to the Attorney-General's attempt to water down protections against hate speech in the Racial Discrimination Act. Is the minister aware of comments by Mr Robert Goot, President of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, that:

This legislation gives the green light to unleashing racial hate speech in Australia, no matter how unreasonable and lacking in good faith.

Is Mr Goot right?

George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Furner, I am aware of a variety of views in the community, and the government are currently considering those. We went to the last election promising to reform section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act because we were of the view that, as currently written, it does not serve to effectively protect people from racial vilification, with which it does not even deal—were you aware of that, Senator Furner?—and, the extent to which it does seek to address the issue, it does so by unreasonably using the technique of political censorship, which we think in a free society should never be used.

Mark Furner (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. Is the minister aware of a submission by the Muslim Legal Network into the proposed changes to 18C which states:

These reforms offer promoters of hatred a form of validation to enable them to recruit more followers.

Is the Muslim Legal Network right?

George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am considering at the moment all of the submissions that have been received by the government—some 5½ thousand of them—in response to the exposure draft that I published at the beginning of April. I do not agree with the proposition which some, but not others, assert that section 18C in its current form serves its legislative purpose well.

Mark Furner (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a further supplementary question. Is the minister aware of the 48 councils from across the country who have signed up to the Project 18C movement to stop his amendments to water down the Racial Discrimination Act? Are these 48 local councils right?

George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The answer to the first part of the question is, yes, I am aware of the view expressed by those councils. The answer to the second part of the question is, no, I do not agree. I do not agree because what the government is proposing to do is repair section 18C by ensuring that it does effectively protect against racial vilification, which the section in its current form does not, but does not adopt the technique of political censorship, which in a free country should never be allowed.