FREEDOM of speech is essential to democracy; so is the freedom to debate.
No significant voice in Australia argues otherwise.
It is also the case that freedom of speech is not an absolute right in Australia nor in other similar liberal democracies — even if some voices in pretend otherwise.
The Australian Law Reform Commission has identified at least nine categories of federal and state laws that limit or outlaw expression in different contexts — including not only sedition, treason and counter-terrorism laws, but government secrecy laws, contempt laws, defamation laws, media and communications laws, intellectual property laws, advertising laws, and laws against perjury and lying to authorities.
Not even the most vehement partisans of “free speech” argue that these laws should be abolished — because, in truth, even they do not believe free speech is an absolute right which no other right or public interest should ever override.
However, self-proclaimed free speech advocates have chosen to target section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act, arguing it is the key threat to the right to free speech in Australia while ignoring all those other limitations that exist.
Their case is not only highly selective, but demonstrably weak.
Section 18C was introduced more than 20 years ago to improve the Racial Discrimination Act, and fulfil Australia’s obligations under international law to protect our citizens against the harm caused by the most egregious forms of racial vilification.
Read the full article by Colin Rubenstein at The Herald Sun.