Discover Top Posts Tagged with #s18c

If someone says “18C is bad for free speech"...

...tell them this:

1. Do you know about s18D? *pause for an answer* s18D says your speech ain't illegal under s18C if it was done "reasonably and in good faith". That means only the more extreme/dishonest racist speech is outlawed. You can still get away with saying a hell of a lot.

2. We have a million laws that restrict free speech. Whether they're good or bad is up to you but 'pure free speech' don't exist in any country. Defamation laws (don't say anything slightly bad about a rich guy or he'll sue ya), public decency laws (used against homeless people heaps in sometimes dicky ways), immigration laws (asylum seekers and refugees can't be heard, have to watch what they say if they don't want to get deported for the smallest anti-government speech) etc. Why are the Libs big "free speech" advocates when it comes to racists, but don't give a crap about the "free speech" of immigrants, the homeless and those scared if they say one bad thing about Murdoch or Rinehart?

3. Libs are using this s18C stuff as a distraction. They are failing at real politics - jobs, climate, homes, energy - so want to talk about symbolic politics. Cause they always get a boost in numbers when they do the ole 'political correctness has gone too far' schtick.

#auspol #s18C #racism #george brandis #malcolm turnbull #australia #freespeech

In a trendy café in the heart of Wollongong a pharmacist tells me how he despairs at the hurt in his 7-year-old daughter’s eyes as she sees news reports and hears stories in the playground telling her she should be ashamed of who she is. In the same café I hear from an imam at a local mosque about the dumping of a pig’s heads outside his place of worship. In Melbourne’s Coburg I hear how an engineer who also happens to be a young Muslim woman wearing a hijab, is told by a male colleague “over the water cooler” how much he hates Arabs and that they would all be dead within a few years. A young Muslim lawyer tells me that members of his family fear putting their name to the census because they don’t want the government to know where they live. He says they don’t want to put down roots because they fear that one day the authorities will come for them. My conversations with multicultural communities in recent months, particularly with Muslim Australians, suggest these incidents are all too common. Australians are being subjected to acts of bigotry that defy who we are as a nation. With more and more men, women and children experiencing racism in their streets, on public transport and over social media, it’s never been more important to ensure that people can rely on basic legal protections from its crushing effects. Yet Malcolm Turnbull has signalled he’s prepared to water down protections in the Racial Discrimination Act, to make it even easier for people to express racist and bigoted opinions.

Repealing 18C will consign the idea of a 'fair go' to the dustbin of Australian history | Richard di Natale | Opinion | The Guardian

#richard di natale #s18C