Page 25 - Week 01 - Tuesday, 25 February 2014
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Mr Wilson will be formally known as the “freedom commissioner”, and has said he is determined to refocus the commission on the task of defending freedom of speech as a human right. One of his agendas—and this is also an election promise of the Abbott government—is to repeal the part of the Racial Discrimination Act that makes it illegal to offend and insult based on race. These are known as the Bolt laws, as Andrew Bolt was found to have breached them in 2011 in one of his articles. Mr Wilson said of these anti-vilification laws:
Irrespective of what any individual thinks about how this part of the Racial Discrimination Act has been used in the past, it should be repealed. It fundamentally undermines the human right to free speech.
The relevant part of the Racial Discrimination Act which Mr Wilson and the Liberals have vowed to repeal is section 18C. It says it is unlawful for someone to do a public act that is reasonably likely, in all the circumstances, to offend, insult, humiliate or intimidate another person or group of people, and the act is done because of the race, colour, or national or ethnic origin of the other person or of some or all people in the group.
What an irony that this is the exact claim the local Liberals are now trying to prosecute. At the federal level, the Liberals want to repeal the protections against racial vilification, and yet today they are trying to prosecute a case for racial vilification. When the federal government—
Mr Coe interjecting—
MADAM SPEAKER: Order, Mr Coe! I warn you, Mr Coe.
MR RATTENBURY: When the federal government and the new freedom commissioner have their way, this section will not even exist, and people who may be racially vilified will not even have a remedy under the Racial Discrimination Act. There is an exact debate about whether or not the material at the Fringe Festival breached that provision, but the very point I wish to make is that it is important that those protections are in place so that matters like this can actually be tested.
As I said earlier, some people have expressed to me concerns about the appropriateness of the show. Those people have raised very reasonable points. For example, is the Multicultural Festival the best place for the Fringe Festival or should it stand in its own right? I think that is an interesting discussion to have. The Multicultural Festival is a huge event in its own right. The Fringe Festival was very popular in its own right, and some people have said to me that they wish it was on a separate weekend, because they could not get to everything they wanted to on the Multicultural Festival weekend.
That is a fair debate to have and it may actually address some of the questions where people felt that content of the Fringe Festival was perhaps not the right content for the Multicultural Festival, which is very family oriented. I think that is a reasonable discussion to have. I think the Fringe Festival is perfectly appropriate. I think that it is important we have events like that, because it caters to a range of artistic tastes in the community.
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