In an ABC interview this week, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull persisted with his argument that pressure for reform of section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act 1975 is little more than a pre-occupation of the elite media.
Groups such as News Limited have certainly been ardent advocates for reform, but that is because of a concern that basic freedoms enjoyed by Australians are under threat.
Turnbull’s oft-repeated mantra of ‘jobs and growth’, while important in itself, will not succeed in knocking the issue of freedom of speech into the long grass. Nor can the issue of equality eclipse liberty.
So the government’s decision to establish a parliamentary enquiry into the operation of the RDA is welcome. It will examine the reasonableness of the legal limits and assess the need for reform.
In particular, the enquiry will assess 18C and, it is to be hoped, make a specific proposal that the words ‘insult’ and ‘offend’ be removed from the section.
Reform of 18C provokes fears — often stoked by Race Discrimination Commissioner Tim Soutphommasane — that it will unleash the hounds of hatred. This is unlikely to happen.
Even AHRC President Gillian Triggs has finally given her support to reforming 18C, saying that she would see it as a “strengthening”. “It could be a very useful thing to do,” Triggs told the ABC.
And, as UTS academic Andrew Jakubowicz has argued, revisions to 18C could be accompanied by changes to the Commonwealth Criminal Code to allay any fears that hate speech might proliferate.
Basic freedoms such as freedom of speech are under threat from cultural progressives, Liberal MP Tim Wilson warned in his CIS 2016 Acton Lecture this week.
“A cultural expectation of political correctness that goes beyond respectfulness has seeped into our society,” Wilson said. Identity politics is promoting a form of tribalism.
Our politicians’ self-enforcing points views are not the ones that count. This parliamentary enquiry needs to succeed so that the heavy burden of 18C and its restraints can be lifted from our shoulders.
Home > Commentary > Opinion > 18c shackles us
18c shackles us
Groups such as News Limited have certainly been ardent advocates for reform, but that is because of a concern that basic freedoms enjoyed by Australians are under threat.
Turnbull’s oft-repeated mantra of ‘jobs and growth’, while important in itself, will not succeed in knocking the issue of freedom of speech into the long grass. Nor can the issue of equality eclipse liberty.
So the government’s decision to establish a parliamentary enquiry into the operation of the RDA is welcome. It will examine the reasonableness of the legal limits and assess the need for reform.
In particular, the enquiry will assess 18C and, it is to be hoped, make a specific proposal that the words ‘insult’ and ‘offend’ be removed from the section.
Reform of 18C provokes fears — often stoked by Race Discrimination Commissioner Tim Soutphommasane — that it will unleash the hounds of hatred. This is unlikely to happen.
Even AHRC President Gillian Triggs has finally given her support to reforming 18C, saying that she would see it as a “strengthening”. “It could be a very useful thing to do,” Triggs told the ABC.
And, as UTS academic Andrew Jakubowicz has argued, revisions to 18C could be accompanied by changes to the Commonwealth Criminal Code to allay any fears that hate speech might proliferate.
Basic freedoms such as freedom of speech are under threat from cultural progressives, Liberal MP Tim Wilson warned in his CIS 2016 Acton Lecture this week.
“A cultural expectation of political correctness that goes beyond respectfulness has seeped into our society,” Wilson said. Identity politics is promoting a form of tribalism.
Our politicians’ self-enforcing points views are not the ones that count. This parliamentary enquiry needs to succeed so that the heavy burden of 18C and its restraints can be lifted from our shoulders.
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