THE HON MARK DREYFUS QC MP SHADOW ATTORNEY-GENERAL SHADOW MINISTER FOR THE ARTS MEMBER FOR ISAACS E&OE TRANSCRIPT DOORSTOP INTERVIEW CAIRNS MONDAY, 4 AUGUST 2014 SUBJECT/S: Repeal of Section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act; Governments cuts to Community Legal Centres; Constitutional Recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island Peoples; Asylum seekers. MARK DREYFUS, SHADOW ATTORNEY-GENERAL: Good morning. I’m here with Senator Jan McLucas and I’ve been talking to people here this morning about the Government’s proposed repeal of Section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act, a matter of concern to all Australians, removing protections against racist hate speech that have been part of Australian law for almost 20 years. They are laws which we should keep and I’m hearing from people here in Cairns what I’ve heard from people all around Australia - we should keep these laws. I’m also here to speak with the Community Legal Centre and talk to them about the cuts that the Abbott Government have imposed on legal assistance, which includes Community Legal Centres and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Service here in Cairns, which serves the Indigenous community. This Government doesn’t understand that it’s important that vital community services, like the legal assistance services that are provided by the Legal Aid Commission, Community Legal Centres and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Service be maintained and in fact that they should be increased because of the vital role that they play. JOURNALIST: What has been the reaction from the legal community here? DREYFUS: The legal community, as with legal communities all around Australia, are very concerned about these cuts. They know that there is a high level of unmet legal need, where people who are being taken to court do need to have representation, where people who have got legal difficulties in their lives do need to get legal advice and they see the affect, and that’s not just people working in the legal assistance sector, publicly funded, but people in the private profession know the important role that is played by Legal Aid Commissions and Community Legal Centres. JOURNALIST: Not only with legal aid, with the Racial Discrimination Act, what’s the greatest concern with changes to that? DREYFUS: The concern about the change to the Racial Discrimination Act is that it’s going to remove the protection against racist hate speech that Australians have had for nearly 20 years. And the Government has called for submissions, it’s had submissions back in April, the Government has not yet got the message, which is a very, very loud and clear message from people right across Australia that it should simply drop this proposal. It hasn’t made out a case for change, there’s no basis for it, it should drop the proposal it’s got. JOURNALIST: Why are they saying it should go ahead though? What’s their defence? DREYFUS: The Government’s put forward some, what to me are hollow arguments, about free speech, failing to realise that free speech has never been absolute and that its important in some areas that we have restrictions, and we’ve had this restriction on racist hate speech. It’s a restriction that should stay. It should form no part of Australian life that people be able to racially vilify each other in public. JOURNALIST: Mr Dreyfus, what do you think of George Brandis’s criticism of Fairfax’s publication of a cartoon he says is antisemitic? DREYFUS: Fairfax apologised for the publication of its cartoon last Saturday. It was a very offensive cartoon and I welcome the apology from Fairfax. JOURNALIST: Are you surprised by how Senator Brandis came out, given his proposed changes to the Racial Discrimination Act? DREYFUS: The criticism that Senator Brandis made of the offensive cartoon published in the Fairfax press is criticism that was voiced by many other people around Australia. I’d be hoping that it might show some understanding by Senator Brandis of the harm that can be done by racist vilification and I’m hoping that perhaps this is going to provide a catalyst for him to drop the proposal that he’s got to lessen the protections against racist hate speech. JOURNALIST: And will explicit prohibition of racial discrimination in the Constitution, will that actually be a condition of Labor supporting a referendum to recognise the First Australian people? DREYFUS: We’re working through on what I hope will continue to be a bipartisan basis, the need for recognition of Indigenous people in the Australian Constitution. The exact terms of the referendum that is going to be taken to the people, I hope next year, are the subject of the consultation that’s now occurring, but again I’ve heard loud and clear from people across Australia, particularly in the Indigenous community, just how important they think it is that there be a prohibition on racial discrimination in the Australian constitution. JOURNALIST: You know, it’s always a bipartisan support, so would putting a condition on it make it harder to actually get that referendum up? DREYFUS: Well, we haven’t put conditions as yet. We are consulting, we’re doing so in a bipartisan way. We’ve very conscious that the history of referendums in Australia, which is that unless there is bipartisan support, it’s very unlikely that a referendum will succeed, but obviously we don’t want this referendum process to be just a token process. We want it to be real and substantial and reflect what constitutions should do, which is to reflect modern Australia. JOURNALIST: What do you think of the Federal Government telling asylum seekers they should change jobs so they won’t be persecuted in their home country. For instance there’s a story in The Australian about a man from Afghanistan, I think he’s a truck driver. Not familiar with that one? DREYFUS: I haven’t seen the story, but I think that Australia has to deal with people who arrive here seeking asylum as we find them. Trying to lecture people about lessening persecution in their home countries doesn’t seem to me to be an appropriate role for the Australian Government. JOURNALIST: And do you agree with the Government training asylum seekers how to drive lifeboats back to India? DREYFUS: We don’t know anything about what the Government has been doing in our name out in the Indian Ocean. This has been a repeated problem with this Government since they came to power. It’s far and away the most secretive government that we’ve seen in living memory. It’s about time the Government started to explain what it was doing, that we shouldn’t have to be reading, as it’s been said, on the front page of the Jakarta Post more about what our government is doing than we are learning from our government itself. ENDS MEDIA CONTACT: ANNIE WILLIAMS 0428 040 522
Posted on: Mon, 04 Aug 2014 03:05:58 +0000
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