On 25 March 2014 the Federal Attorney-General, Senator George Brandis, announced that the Government proposed amending the Racial Discrimination Act 1975 (Cth) to repeal ss 18B, 18C, 18D and 18E, and insert a new section. The Government's Freedom of Speech (Repeal of s. 18C) Bill 2014 proposed that, in the name of "freedom of speech", the current prohibition on publically offending, insulting, humiliating or intimidating "a person or group of people" on the basis of their "race colour or national or ethic origin", be removed, and replaced with a prohibition on vilification and intimidation.
Senator Brandis has been a long-time vocal critic of s 18C. Following the Federal Court's decision in Eatock v Bolt [2011] FCA 1103 Senator Brandis, writing in The Australian, commented that:
The "Bolt case" involved a series of articles and blog posts written by Andrew Bolt that implied, as Larissa Behrendt has set out, that the "choice" of "a number of named Aboriginal persons" to identify as Aboriginal "was opportunistic and for the purpose of providing them with financial and other benefits reserved for 'genuine' Aboriginal persons who are darker, rather than fairer, skinned Aboriginal persons."
Justice Bromberg found that Bolt's "public comments" were "were unlawful" under s 18C and did not fall within the Act's exemption of "conduct done reasonably and in good faith in the pursuit of making fair comment."
However, on 6 August Prime Minister Tony Abbott announced that the proposed changes to 18C had been taken "off the table" for the sake of "national unity".
The proposed changes have generated much community criticism, particularly from Indigenous Australians, with it being reported that the Indigenous Liberal MP, Ken Wyatt, has threatened to cross the floor if the proposed changes go ahead.
In response to the question "won't removing section 18C facilitate vilification by bigots?", posed by Indigenous Labor MP Nova Peris, Senator Brandis' replied "People do have the right to be bigots, you know... In a free country, people do have rights to say things that other people find offensive, insulting or bigoted."
Craig Cromeline, Chairperson of the New South Wales Aboriginal Land Council, has said that he finds it "astonishing that our top law maker seeks to passionately defend the right of people to be bigots than the rights of the most marginalised people in our society."
Kirstie Parker, Co-Chair of the Close the Gap Campaign Steering Committee, also opposes the changes. She claims that a "recent study from Victoria revealed that 97 per cent of participants had experienced racism in the past 12 months."
Mick Gooda, also Campaign Co-Chair, argues that "experiences of racism are associated with poor health outcomes and health risk behaviours. Racism is linked to anxiety, depression, poor mental health, psychological distress, suicide risk, diabetes, smoking, alcohol and substance misuse and emotion and behavioural difficulties." At a time when Indigenous life expectancy is still well below the national average, the proposed changes to the Act are particularly significant.
Following "an avalanche of submissions" it was reported that Senator Brandis was considering "water[ing] down" the proposed amendments to the Act.
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