Amending the Racial Discrimination Act’s Section 18C would send a “dangerous message” from political leaders that “a degree of racism in public discourse is to be considered acceptable”, according to the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ).
In a submission to the parliamentary inquiry into freedom of speech, the council says this could damage cohesiveness, peace and order in Australian society. The removal of the words “offend” and “insult” would leave “severe gaps in the protections provided” compared with those now provided.
But the council, which describes itself as the national representative body of Australian Jewry, favours changes in the process for the Human Rights Commission’s handling of complaints to eliminate early those without merit and strongly discourage them proceeding to court.
The council says the proposal to delete “offend” and “insult” – as promoted within the Coalition – “is based on the erroneous view that those words set up a ‘subjective test’ based on ‘hurt feelings’, which establishes too low a threshold for the operation of the section and therefore impinges excessively on freedom of expression”.
Read the full article by Michelle Grattan at The Conversation.