MP may break ranks on RDA
INDIGENOUS Liberal MP Ken Wyatt is threatening to cross the floor and vote against changes in the Racial Discrimination Act, after it was revealed the government could make sweeping changes to the legislation.
INDIGENOUS Liberal MP Ken Wyatt is threatening to cross the floor and vote against changes in the Racial Discrimination Act, after it was revealed the government could make sweeping changes to the legislation.
An article in The Australian on Tuesday suggested the Coalition proposes to remove the words “offend, insult, humiliate” from section 18C, as well as removing the requirement that a defendant must have acted “reasonably and in good faith” in order to be covered by the free speech defences available under section 18D.
Wyatt expressed his concerns in the Coalition party room on Tuesday and said his support for any changes was conditional on the final legislation.
Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) executive director Peter Wertheim has expressed “vehement opposition” to the mooted changes.
Speaking on behalf of the ECAJ and representatives of the Indigenous, Greek, Chinese, Arab, Armenian and Korean communities, Wertheim said the changes would mean the government “has decided to license the public humiliation of people because of their race”.
“It would send a signal that people may spout racist abuse in public, no matter how unreasonably and dishonestly,” he said.
“It would be astonishing if an Australian government in the 21st century was prepared to embrace such a morally repugnant position.”
Wertheim said Wyatt and fellow MP Craig Laundy, who has also put his opposition to changing the Act on record, were not alone in the Coalition party room.
“Craig Laundy and Ken Wyatt have had the courage to say publicly what a number of Coalition colleagues, some of them very senior, have been saying to us privately,” he said.
“Once people understand that the existing law only applies to serious cases and requires an objective test to be satisfied based on community standards … it becomes clear that the current law is about enabling targeted groups to defend themselves against racial vilification and has nothing to do with limiting free speech.”
He said the more extensive the proposed changes, which are expected to be tabled in Parliament in the next two weeks, are, “the stiffer the opposition to it will be”.
Human Rights Law Centre executive director Hugh de Kretser also entered the debate, saying the Coalition’s proposals would “substantially weaken the current laws” and should be rejected.
GARETH NARUNSKY
Ken Wyatt (right) with Prime Minister Tony Abbott. (Photo: AAP Image/Alan Porritt)
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