Author: lydia-shelly

The Racial Discrimination Act 1975  makes it against the law for people to treat you unfairly because of your race, colour, descent, national or ethnic origin or immigrant status. The Australian Government under the leadership of Malcolm Turnbull, are attempting to water-down section 18C of the Act which would further expose minority communities to discrimination and hate speech. This would include the Australian Muslim community. The Keating Government in 1995 introduced Section 18C of the Act, making it unlawful to “offend, insult, humiliate or intimidate” a person based on their race or ethnicity. Former Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, also supported the push to repeal section 18C. Instead of championing the rights of those who are regularly exposed to discrimination and racism, our Government supports the notion espoused by the Attorney-General George Brandis; that is that “people do have a right to be bigots”. Many supporters who wish to water down or repeal section 18C mischievously assert that the Act is an obstacle to free speech. This is baseless and without any merit whatsoever. Section 18D of the Act says that the following things are not against the law if they are “done reasonably and in good faith” in: an artistic work or performance – for example, a play in which racially offensive attitudes are expressed by a character. a statement, publication, discussion or debate made for genuine academic or...