Bill Shorten says the Abbott government is more likely to respond to grass-roots criticism than to Labor’s campaign to peg back changes to the Race Discrimination Act.
“Supporters of the Racial Discrimination Act are wrong if they insist it provides anything like substantial protection against racism.” Waleed Aly
The Opposition Leader has called on communities with direct experience of racial vilification to make their voices heard during the consultation period for the legislation.
In a speech to the Zionist Federation of Australia last weekend, Mr Shorten spoke of his opposition to the government’s controversial revision of the Act, telling his audience that time was running out to persuade the Coalition to change tack.
Submissions concerning the current RDA exposure draft can be made by email to 18cconsulation@ag.gov.au and have to be submitted by April 30.
While urging people to oppose the government’s plans, Mr Shorten also warned against over-reaction, saying that he did not accuse the Prime Minister, Attorney-General George Brandis, or the cabinet of condoning racism or bigotry over their views.
Mr Shorten said the practical effect of the changes – which he has called a “seriously retrograde step” – needed to be uppermost in the debate.
While the lobby to keep current legal protections against racist speech has attracted most attention – the debate widened this week, with influential commentators suggesting people should look beyond the practical effects of repealing section 18C of the Act – which currently enables Australians to use litigation if they feel defamed (a course of action rarely used) – to the symbolism of the legislation.
Monash University lecturer Waleed Aly and Race Discrimination Commissioner Tim Soutphommasane, both writing in Fairfax Media, focused their objections to the government’s reforms on a deeper level.
Twenty years after the Act’s introduction, to suggest that the level of bigotry in Australia has been influenced by it, said Waleed Aly, is a furphy.
“We’re not exactly playing for cut-throat stakes,” said Mr Aly in his article, that took aim at the underlying anachronistic basis of Australia’s Race laws, and its emphasis on a white-dominated racial power hierarchy.
“Supporters of the Racial Discrimination Act are wrong if they insist it provides anything like substantial protection against racism. I’ve copped my share of racial abuse both in public and in private, and section 18C wasn’t ever going to do a damn thing about it,” added Aly.
Tim Soutphommasane said that he would allow for some clarification of the act – to make clear racial abuse is only unlawful if it causes “profound and serious effects”, as opposed to “mere slights”.
The Commissioner also suggested protection of free speech “conducted reasonably and in good faith” could be strengthened by changes to the Act.
But Soutphommasane warned that the proposed changes, by weakening legal protection against racial vilification, “would give legal sanction to the most serious forms of racial vilification if expressed in the course of participating in a public discussion.
“They would, I fear, embolden a minority with bigoted views to amplify their prejudice.”
The furore over repealing section 18 of the act has seen the government alter its position over the legislation. Adjusting the proposed changes in light of community concerns is now likely.