George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Hansard source

What we are concerned with is inserting into the Racial Discrimination Act an explicit prohibition of hate speech by, for the first time, prohibiting racial vilification and defining racial vilification as 'conduct, including words, which incite hatred'. Senator Peris, unless words have lost their meaning, 'to prohibit conduct that incites racial hatred' is a prohibition on hate speech. But we choose to attack what you, Senator Peris, by your question, seem to acknowledge is at the heart of racism, rather than—as the previous Labor government's amendments to the Racial Discrimination Act did—try to close down community discussion and delegitimise those with different points of view.