If you think of the Abbott government as one long, torturous road trip, we’ve just reached the point where Attorney-General George Brandis has turned in red-faced frustration and yelled “fine, we’ll pull over and get Maccas if youse whingeing kids will just SHUT THE BLOODY HELL UP.”
There are reports today that Brandis plans to scale back proposed, controversial amendments to the Racial Discrimination Act, restricting racist insults and hate speech, after a large number of submissions flagging concern over the potential implications of the changes.
The government initially committed to amending the RDA in the lead-up to the last Federal Election, following a court case in which Andrew Bolt, who had written articles about individuals identifying as aboriginal, was prosecuted for breaching section 18C of the act.
Section 18C currently bans actions that are “reasonably likely, in all the circumstances, to offend, insult, humiliate or intimidate others because of the race, colour or national of ethnic origin.”
Brandis’s initial plan was to scrap 18C all together, but following numerous grassroots campaigns against this, and pressure from Liberal MPs who represent marginal seats with large ethnic communities, he softened his stance.
As of
March this year, Brandis planned to remove the words “offend”, “insult” and “humiliate” from the act, retaining “intimidate”, albeit with a narrower definition. He also planned to add a new offense, “racial vilification”, to Section 18C.
As of today, however, Fairfax are reporting that Brandis is winding back his proposal even further. Liberal MPs Alex Hawke and Craig Kelly, both of whom supported Brandis’s initial plan to repeal Section 18C all together, have also cooled significantly in their enthusiasm.
”We need to start again,” said Hawke. “I don’t want see journalists prosecuted for offending [and] ethnic community leaders are making a compelling case that any reforms have to be very carefully handled.”
As of yesterday, Brandis has said that he’s working through 5,300 submissions received in relation to the changes, and promises the government will listen to what people have to say. “There is a large variety of views from all points of the opinion spectrum and we will take into consideration all of those views and we will arrive at a final proposal,” he said.
Meanwhile, Liberal senator
Corey Bernardi said that he still supports the proposed changes to 18C, after which a pair of sunglasses descended onto his head and the words “DEAL WITH IT” appeared beside him in garish 200pt font.
via Sydney Morning Herald
Photo: Quinn Rooney via Getty Images
