There is no point, no point at all, in electing a politician who do not proceed from principles, and in particular, the principles held out to the voters. We know now that there are at least four principled senators. They are South Australian Senators Bob Day and Cory Bernardi, West Australian Senator Dean Smith and NSW Senator David Leyonhjelm. They were all elected – as indeed were all Liberal and National politicians – on the expectation that they would support the amendment of the infamous section 18 C of the Racial Discrimination Act. Under a bill introduced on 2 October 2014 by Senator Day, supported by the other senators, the words offend and insult will be deleted from the section. It is crucial to note that it will still be unlawful to intimidate a person or group of people on the basis of their race, colour or national or ethnic origin. Section 18C was successfully used against commentator Andrew Bolt concerning his criticism of light skinned Australians who were offended by a story about their claims to be treated as Aborigines. In the resulting furore, the then opposition leader Tony Abbott promised that a future coalition government would reform the section. But on 6 August, 2014 and now as Prime Minister, Tony Abbott announced that said he had made a leadership call to abandon the changes. This was because they had become a complication in the Governments relationship with the Australian Muslim community. According to an ABC report, Mr Abbott said When it comes to counter-terrorism, everyone needs to be part of Team Australia. The Governments proposals to change 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act have become a complication in that respect. I dont want to do anything that puts our national unity at risk at this time and so those proposals are now off the table. It is, if you like, a leadership call that I have made after discussion with the Cabinet today. In the end, leadership is about preserving national unity on the essentials and that is why I have taken this decision. The Minister of education Christopher Pyne claimed that the government was responding to reaction to an exposure draft of the proposed amendments released by the Attorney General Senator Brandis. Apparently Minister Pyne thinks it is quite in order to make a very clear promise at the election and then to cave in when the usual suspects object. The fact of course is that that the unelected lobbies within the racial discrimination industry, in a coalition with the Left, mounted a major campaign to attack the exposure draft. Senator Bernardi has long advocated for change, and told Parliament the existing provision imposed a grotesque limitation on ordinary political discourse. The mere fact that you insult or offend somebody probably should not, of itself, give rise to legal liability, he said. [Section] 18C has created an Orwellian environment ... the tyranny of political correctness has become the price of freedom. Senator Smith defended his decision to co-sponsor the bill. I want racists and bigots, and dare I say homophobes, to air their ugly prejudicial views so they can be shown for what they are, he said. If we shut down discussion, if we use legislation to declare certain subjects are somehow off limits, then we havent defeated the problem. We have merely hidden the problem. To his credit, the recently appointed Human Rights Commissioner Tim Wilson stands by his assessment that the unamended law is dangerous. He says the Government is maintaining laws that act as a form of political censorship and have a chilling effect on free speech. Politicians, he says shouldnt be worried about critics. They should be actually interested in creating the structures and framework in our society so that peoples human rights can be protected, not appeasing to groups just because it makes their job easier. The whole basis of human rights is to protect people against the majority view and so, when there are a lot of groups organised in favour of censorship, that is not a justification to silence people. The amendment bill will be a litmus test for those politicians who went to the election under the banner of defending freedom of speech. abc.net.au/news/2014-08-06/abbott-insists-there-will-be-no-revival-of-racial-law-changes/5651414]
Posted on: Mon, 06 Oct 2014 11:24:15 +0000
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