True to his word, Family First Senator Bob Day has introduced a bill to amend s 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act 1975. The bill, which was presented in the Senate yesterday afternoon, is being co-sponsored by two government Senators – PJCHR Chair, Senator Dean Smith, and Senator Cory Bernardi – and crossbencher, Senator David Leyonhjelm.
However, contrary to earlier reports, the bill is not a reproduction of the government’s scrapped exposure draft, but is, instead, a more modest proposal for reform. Unlike the government’s wish list which would have seen, among other things, the repeal of s 18C altogether, the bill proposes a narrower amendment to remove the words ‘offend’ and ‘insult’ from the current provision, so that it will only be unlawful to ‘humiliate’ or ‘intimidate’ based on race. It will also leave untouched ss 18B, 18D, and 18E.
The EM’s view that ‘current paragraph 18C(1)(a) goes too far in curtailing Australian citizens’ freedom of speech, expression and opinion’ is not new (or presumably limited to citizens). The PJCHR has itself raised similar concerns[1] in the context of a proposal by the previous government to extend the definition of discrimination to include offensive or insulting conduct – remember that botched attempt to consolidate federal anti-discrimination laws?
The statement of compatibility briefly expresses the hope that the bill will ‘restore an appropriate balance between outlawing racial discrimination while preserving freedom of speech, expression and opinion’.
You’ll doubtless have your own views about the desirability of reviving this particular debate at this point in time, but, all in all, the bill certainly isn’t Mark II of the ‘Andrew Bolt Protection Bill’.
[1] See submission number 595, pp 6-7.
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