Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Last night I attended the Muslims Australia 50th anniversary dinner in the Great Hall and heard a great speech by Leader of the Opposition, Bill Shorten. What united nearly everybody there, particularly the Queenslanders, when I spoke to them, was the horrific changes proposed by this coalition government to section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act, a piece of legislation that has served this multicultural nation so well for 40-odd years.

Person after person spoke, whether they were from Queensland or other parts of Australia, spoke to me about the weakening of protections against hate speech and how it is such a backward step for this nation. Twenty-four Islamic organisations in my home state united to produce a group submission outlining their concerns about the changes. This submission represented a great diversity of views from the Australian community. They are concerned that these changes flagged by the Attorney-General would send the wrong message: to offenders, that hate speech is more acceptable in our society, opening the door to more abuse; and to victims, that their right to live free from racial or religious vilification, abuse and intolerance would be diminished. I am especially aware of how this would impact on school students in my electorate, if we give bigots the right to say these things. Obviously, freedom of speech is a very important right, but it is not an absolute right and should not be abused or misused.