25^th March 2014
The President of the Executive Council of Aus­trali­an Jewry, Robert Goot AM SC, today issued the following statement:
“The ECAJ regards the Exposure Draft of the repeal of ss18B, C, D and E of the Racial Dis­crim­in­a­tion Act, released by the Attorney General today, as deeply flawed.
The Gov­ern­ment proposal in effect rips up key pro­tec­tions to groups within Aus­trali­an society which have operated suc­cess­fully for almost 20 years and which have con­trib­uted in no small measure to the building and main­tain­ing of an har­mo­ni­ous Aus­trali­an society.
Whilst the sub­stan­tial weakening of s18C by removing “humiliate”, “offend” and “insult” and by severely limiting pro­tec­tion to vili­fic­a­tion and intim­id­a­tion and sub­stan­tially narrowly defining those terms (unlike their ordinary meanings), to mean respect­ively “to incite hatred” or “to cause fear of physical harm”, is alarming enough, the inclusion of sub-section (4), will have the effect of removing most, if not all of, the pro­tec­tion, inad­equate though it is, in sub-section (1).
Sub-section (4) provides that the entire section will not apply to
“…words, sounds, images written, spoken, broadcast or otherwise com­mu­nic­ated in the course of par­ti­cip­at­ing in the public dis­cus­sion of any political, social, cultural, religious, artistic, academic or sci­entif­ic matter”.
Further and equally alarming, the existing qual­i­fic­a­tions to s18C contained in s18D which were pro­tect­ive of free speech, by not rendering unlawful anything said or done “reas­on­ably and in good faith”, have been removed entirely.
Racial bigotry is wrong and harmful to both the people it targets and to the cohes­ive­ness of society as a whole. This legis­la­tion gives the green light to unleash­ing racial hate speech in Australia, no matter how unreas­on­able and lacking in good faith.
It is hard to envisage any conduct that will be caught by this emas­cu­lated legis­la­tion. Certainly, it is unlikely that any of the cases which the ECAJ has suc­cess­fully brought under s18C over the years, could have been insti­tuted, under this proposed legis­lat­ive regime.
The ECAJ will be making sub­mis­sions to the Gov­ern­ment on the proposed reforms.”
For inform­a­tion:
Robert M Goot AM SC: 0411 654 625
Peter Wertheim AM: 0408 160 904