To Stomp on 18C, First You Need a Spine

Some three months after the community consultation process commenced in April, 2014, it had begun to seem an  odds-on certainty that the draft Bill intended to water down Section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act 1975 would be dumped in the legislative “too hard” tray. Yesterday, August 5, Prime Minister Tony Abbott made that capitulation official by formally declaring free speech was not one of his government’s priorities.

The loud shaming campaign launched by an alliance of forces opposed to so-called “hate speech” before the 2013 federal election led the Abbott government to throw in the towel. The vehemence of the opposition to amendment of 18C has been in inverse proportion to the opponents’ inclination to confront the principled arguments for repeal. Instead, we have seen a steady resort to abstract sloganeering about “hate speech”, vilification and assorted “phobias”, along with lashings of hyperbole of “the end of the world is nigh!” variety.

And…