Bigot Brandis moves to protect the right to be a bigot
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- Published: Tuesday, 01 April 2014 00:01
Attorney-General Senator Brandis is under attack from all sides of politics for his initiative to make changes to section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act so that it would no longer be illegal to offend, insult or humiliate on the basis of race and bigots and racists could use race to vilify and intimidate in “public debate”.
“Other Australians have the right to be bigots too”, said Senator Brandis last week. “I’m not going to sit around doing nothing while people are prevented from racially vilifying whomever they like. We’ve been too polite for too long and we have to restore rights to pompous fat white people. The pendulum has swung too far.”
But Senator Brandis has found opposition within his own ranks.
NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell last week announced “bigotry should never be sanctioned… vilification on the grounds of race or religion is always wrong and there is no place for inciting hatreds within our Australian society”, the Premier said, drawing a measured response from Senator Brandis.
