Alannah Mactiernan (Perth, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am proud of Australia's performance as a multicultural nation. We are far from perfect but we are doing a pretty good job in that very hard task of creating the social glue we need to bring people from such disparate backgrounds together in a unified national identity.

The Racial Discrimination Act has served an important role in achieving this identity. It sends a message that as we are working on this complex project of bringing many people together we must learn to be careful with what we say. We cannot make anyone feel less valued because of their race. Watering this down to any extent will undermine that important message.

Two months ago, the member for Greenway and I hosted a forum in Perth of 25 Indigenous and other ethnic groups, whose leaders developed a communique which said, inter alia:

Insulting, offending or humiliating a person because of their race leads to increased discord in our community, and serious personal consequences for victims of discrimination.

We need laws that preserve freedom from fear, not ones that promote freedom to hate.

We call on the Federal government to reconsider its proposed changes to the Racial Discrimination Act and ensure that the Act continues to protect Australian citizens from hate-speech and to promote harmony