While some complaint that anti-discrimination laws stifle freedom of speech, there is good evidence that they make a more harmonious, safe and equal society.
The fate of the government’s push on Section 18C was a mixed bag, without surprises. The week’s most critical issue is the company tax cuts package, which is still in play.
Changes to Section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act unveiled this week look set for defeat in the Senate. But the issue will continue to breathe life.
Malcolm Turnbull is now, it seems, wholly owned by the conservatives in the Liberal Party and their strident media allies. His capitulation to them over 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act has been as…
The government’s multicultural statement stays fairly much in the place where rhetoric around the issue has been located for the past generation – social control and integration.
Peter Dutton has advised Alan Joyce and other business executives who have written to Malcolm Turnbull urging action on same-sex marriage to “stick to their knitting”. It’s advice some in the government…
Malcolm Turnbull had hoped that throwing the controversial Section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act to a parliamentary inquiry would help resolve an issue that has become totemic for conservatives…
Neither Galaxy Research nor the Institute of Public Affairs think-tank discussed the most interesting data they garnered from polling on free speech and reform to Section 18C.
John Watson, The Conversation; Wes Mountain, The Conversation, and Amanda Dunn, The Conversation
Brexit, Trump, terrorism, 18C, safe schools, the gay marriage plebiscite, a government with a wafer-thin majority and a fractious Senate: it has been quite a year in politics.
A minor change, substituting ‘vilify’ for ‘offend’ and ‘insult’, would bring Section 18C more in line with similar laws in other democracies without undermining its effectiveness.
Australia was designed at Federation to ensure nationals of British descent would be able to create a society populated by individuals as much like themselves as possible.