18^th November 2013

We have read with growing concern that the Federal gov­ern­ment has plans to remove or water down the pro­tec­tions against racial vili­fic­a­tion which presently extend to Aus­trali­ans of all back­grounds under the Racial Dis­crim­in­a­tion Act (RDA). This would be a step backwards for Australia. We oppose abso­lutely any such change.
The proposal to change the RDA is being put forward in the name of free speech. Vilifying entire groups of people because of their race has nothing to do with free speech. To be vilified because of one’s ethnicity or national origin hurts one’s ability to par­ti­cip­ate fully in society.
Belonging to a racially vilified group can undermine and ulti­mately destroy the sense of safety and security with which one goes about one’s daily life. And, para­dox­ic­ally for free speech advocates, racial vili­fic­a­tion can have a silencing effect on those who are vilified. Racial vili­fic­a­tion deprives its targets of equal treatment and a fair go. This is what makes it un-Aus­trali­an. Australia should not con­tem­plate going down the path of licensing racial vili­fic­a­tion.
The cultural diversity of Australia’s people is a great source of our nation’s strength. It also imposes an oblig­a­tion on gov­ern­ment to protect and encourage social cohesion. Failure to do so can have very serious if not cata­stroph­ic con­sequences for our society. A change to the RDA would send a signal that racism is accept­able.
Freedom of speech is fun­da­ment­al to our liberal demo­crat­ic society. But any right to free speech has its limits. For example, we have well-estab­lished laws against defam­a­tion, mis­lead­ing advert­ising and the trans­mis­sion of offensive material through the post. Freedom does not mean the license of indi­vidu­als to do just as they please because that would ulti­mately result in the destruc­tion of freedom. The RDA strikes a careful balance between freedom of expres­sion and freedom from racial vili­fic­a­tion.
We urge the Attorney-General to consult with us and other stake­hold­er com­munit­ies before any Bill is intro­duced into the Par­lia­ment.

Author­ised by:
Les Malezer and Kirstie Parker, Co-chairs, National Congress of Australia’s First Peoples
Randa Kattan, CEO, Arab Council Australia
John Pet­ro­po­l­ous, President, Aus­trali­an Hellenic Council
Peter Wertheim, Executive Director, Executive Council of Aus­trali­an Jewry
Patrick Voon, President, Chinese Aus­trali­an Forum
Samir Dandan, President, Lebanese Muslim Asso­ci­ation
Vache H. Kara­meni­an, Executive Director, Armenian National Council of Australia
Maha Krayem Abdo, Executive Officer, United Muslim Women’s Asso­ci­ation
Priscilla Brice-Weller, CEO, All Together Now