Malcolm Turnbull has won the support of his MPs and Senators to water down race hate protections in the Racial Discrimination Act, in an move which shores up his support among the party’s conservatives.
In what the government says is a compromise deal, the Coalition party room on Tuesday morning agreed to change section 18C which makes it an offence to offend, insult, humiliate or intimidate somebody on the basis of race or ethnicity.
Against the protests of marginal seat MPs with large ethnic populations, the party agreed to remove “offend, insult and humiliate” and replace them with “harass”.
The proposed changes have little prospect of passing the Senate because they are opposed by Labor, the Greens and NIck Xenophon, while activist group GetUp gave notice it would be targeting the government over the issue.
Read the full article by Philip Coorey at The Australian Financial Review.