Three years worth of sooking and drama over Section 18C of Australia‘s Racial Discrimination Act by media commentators and Coalition politicians has again slammed directly into a brick wall, with the Senate blocking the government’s proposed changes to the law.
The changes, which would have stricken the words ‘offend’, ‘insult’ and ‘intimidate’ from the law and replace them with ‘harass’, was shot down by Labor and the Greens, with the assistance of Jacqui Lambie and the Nick Xenophon Team. Attorney-General George Brandis described it as a “sad day”.
Labor frontbencher Tony Burke said the defeat of the bill was a victory for anyone who had ever experienced racism in Australia:
This win will be felt by anyone who has experienced racism and knows that racism is more than just words. Those who attempted to trivialise the damage caused by racist hate speech should hear this message and find a cause that doesn’t give licence for insults, offence and humiliation.
The Racial Discrimination Act has dominated the headlines over the past few weeks and months far beyond the actual seriousness of the issue – which is something even the most committed advocate of reforming the act would have to agree with. For some reason, the demands of media pundits that we change a race hate law took greater and more urgent precedence over issues like – you know – deepening income inequality, Indigenous rights, the future of work and housing affordability.
James Paterson, the Liberal senator most in favour of reform, told Fairfax that he expects the bill we before Parliament again before too long. “I strongly suspect we’ll be back here debating this issue again when the next QUT students or Bill Leak case occurs.”
Maybe there’ll be other bigger issues going on then too.
Source: Sydney Morning Herald.
Photo: Getty Images.
