18th 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