An impassioned response by ethnic community groups in 2014 stopped the Abbott government from repealing section 18C Racial Discrimination Act – the section that makes it illegal to commit an act that could “offend, insult, humiliate or intimidate” someone because of their race or ethnicity.

But growing pressure is being exerted on the Turnbull government to revisit the issue, with the case being made by a host of federal right-wing MPs and senators.

Meanwhile, at the state level, in Western Australia last weekend the ruling Liberals passed a motion at their party conference asking for the words “insult” and “offend” to be removed from the Act.

While there has been widespread opposition by Greek Australian community leaders across the country over any changes to the wording of 18C, one state Liberal parliamentarian of Greek heritage in WA – Eleni Evangel – while supporting the status quo, told Neos Kosmos that like many in her party she has reservations.

“We’ve come a long way in the field of eliminating discrimination and hateful speech, partly because of acts such as this one, ensuring discrimination based on race or ethnicity is rejected.” said Ms Evangel.

“I therefore do not see the need for any changes to the Racial Discrimination Act [and] I oppose the abolishment of section 18C altogether. More harm than good would come out of it.”

But Ms Evangel (who was not eligible to vote on the conference motion), says she shares concerns over 18C’s capacity to limit free speech.

“If any changes were to be made, I would consider the suggestion of the removal of the words ‘offend’ and ‘insult’. It’s difficult to measure the words,” she said.

The Perth MP’s views go to the heart of the 18C debate: whether insulting or offending someone should constitute an illegal act.

While such conference motions are not binding on the parliamentary party, the fact that the Liberal faithful in the state are prepared to back Attorney-General George Brandis’ infamous declaration of “the right to be a bigot”, the motion’s acceptance is another sign that the free speech argument is gaining greater traction.

The argument was given further momentum this week when former PM Tony Abbott suggested in a speech that his government has overplayed its hand in 2014, and that the thrust of reforms to 18C should be, as the WA Liberals have proposed, to remove the words “insult” and “offend”.

Liberal senator Cory Bernardi has vowed to introduce a motion to amend section 18C by removing the words, and has said he plans to “expose” parliamentarians unwilling to stand up for freedom of speech when parliament reconvenes in two weeks.

According to Bernardi, section 18C is “used as a tool to stifle speech on the basis it may offend or insult someone – not necessarily the person complaining” and is a “pervasive” step towards ‘Newspeak’, the totalitarian language of George Orwell’s book Nineteen Eighty-Four.

Senator Bernardi’s motion will be supported by Coalition backbenchers including WA Liberal senator Dean Smith and Victorian Liberal senator James Paterson. Crossbenchers including Bob Day, Pauline Hanson and David Leyonhjelm are sure to back the proposal.

Senator Leyonhjelm recently lodged a complaint with the Human Rights Commission after being called an “angry white male” by a Fairfax journalist; the NSW Liberal Democrat claiming his complaint was made to show the inadequacy of section 18C in that it could be used as a legal redress by anyone claiming to have been insulted.

For now the Turnbull government seems set to defend 18C’s current wording. On Thursday, Mathias Cormann, deputy leader of the government in the Senate, told the ABC that there would be no free vote on the issue,with Coalition frontbenchers banned from supporting any such proposal.

“The government has made our position very clear that we will not initiate or support any changes to the Racial Discrimination Act,” Senator Cormann said.

“It’s a debate we had two years ago and we are focusing on implementing the commitments that we took to the last election.”

Attorney-General George Brandis has also gone on record that the government will leave 18C as it stands, but as Labor has pointed out, Malcolm Turnbull’s wafer-thin majority offers opportunities for a growing number of voices calling for change.

“It only takes a couple of those backbenchers to start threatening Mr Turnbull and Mr Turnbull will just turn to water and do whatever they say,” said Opposition Leader Bill Shorten.

Some analysts suggest the Right’s ‘free speech’ campaign is doomed. With Labor and the Greens firmly against any amendments to 18C, the Nick Xenophon Team – which has already voiced its opposition to amending the law – is in a key position in the Senate to block any legislation proposed by the Lower House.

But in the horse-trading of Capital Hill with parliamentarians spurred on by a louder ‘free speech’ chorus than ever, the arguments around section 18C of the Race Discrimination Act are likely to stay with us in the 45th and future Australian parliaments.