Anne Aly to Turnbull again: As someone who has been subjected to racism time and time again, as I was growing up and even in my life now, please give me an answer. What exactly does the prime minister want people to be able to say that they cannot say now?
Turnbull says he understand’s Aly’s point. But.
The suggestion that those people who support a change to the wording of section 18C are somehow or other racist is a deeply offensive one. I mean, among the people that have called for its reform are Warren Mundine, Justice Ronald Sackville, Professor Sarah Joseph from the Castan Centre for Human Rights Law, who questioned whether the section in its current form is actually consistent with our international human rights obligations to protect freedom of speech.
Labor’s Anne Aly to Malcolm Turnbull: the prime minister has claimed today’s changes to Section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act are about increasing freedom of speech. What forms of racial speech does the prime minister want people to be able to say that they cannot say right now?
Turnbull says the high court been obliged to define 18C as involving serious effects, not just mere slights.
It is plain that a statute should speak in language that is clear and accurate and what we need – what we have there is a statute whose language creates a pall of insecurity over writers, over students, over cartoonists, because people look at those words and they say, “So that means any insult, any offence, any humiliation, any hurt feelings it prohibited.”
Clearly Malcolm Turnbull always thought the Racial Discrimination Act needed changing, even though before the election, he said it did not.
Section 18C has lost its credibility. It lost it a long time ago. It needs to be reformed and we are putting it in language that does the job. What we are delivering is a stronger and fairer section. A section that will do a better job at protecting Australians against racial vilification.
Shorten to Turnbull: today is Harmony Day. The International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. Why on today, of all days, has the prime minister chosen to weaken protections against racist hate speech?
Turnbull says we are strengthening the Racial Discrimination Act.
Today we are strengthening the Racial Discrimination Act. We are strengthening it because we are making it clear and we are standing up for freedom of speech.
We are standing up for the freedom of speech that underpins our society, the greatest multicultural society in the world. So, this is the Australia the Labor party believe. They believe that Australia is a nation of racists, only held in check by Gillian Triggs and section 18C.
Malcolm Turnbull presents awards at a power of speech function in the Parliament House theatre. This relates to early intervention programs for deaf children. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian
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