Section 18C Racial Discrimination Act

At the Albury City Council meeting on 23rd June I moved the following motion:

That Council:

1)    Understands the fundamental importance of section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act 1975.

2)    Recognises that section 18C provides protection to individuals from offensive behaviour because of race, colour, national or ethnic origin

3)    Urges all levels of government to combat bigotry at every opportunity.

4)    Requests the Federal Attorney General to withdraw the Draft Exposure Amendment to the Racial Discrimination Act.

Why did I move this motion?

While we are all entitled to be bigots, I do not believe that it is healthy and in the interests of community cohesion and harmony to allow people the unfettered right to publicly air their prejudices as would be possible if section 18C is changed in the way proposed by Senator Brandis.

At present s18c of the Racial Discrimination Act 1975 states that it is unlawful to do an act which is reasonably likely to offend, insult, humiliate or intimidate another person or group on the basis of their race, colour or national or ethnic origin.  The proposed amendments would only make it an offense to vilify or intimidate.

There are plenty of other pieces of legislation that make it unlawful to offend including the NSW Summary Offences Act 1988, The Sexual Discrimination Act 1984 and The Criminal Code Act 1995 so why focus on this piece of legislation.

The right to freedom of expression is recognized as a human right under Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and recognized in international human rights law in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). Article 19 of the ICCPR states that "[e]veryone shall have the right to hold opinions without interference" and "everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of his choice". Article 19 goes on to say that the exercise of these rights carries "special duties and responsibilities" and may "therefore be subject to certain restrictions" when necessary "[f]or respect of the rights or reputation of others" or "[f]or the protection of national security or of public order (order public), or of public health or morals".^[2][3]

I note that the Local Government Act states that the role of a councillor as an elected person is, among other things, “to provide leadership and guidance to the community”.  And in this matter Council is well placed to advance a view for our community.

We have almost 700 refugees in Albury Wodonga and an incredible mix of races and cultures.  We have people of many faiths and of no faith and it is important to ensure that we can all live in harmony without fear of persecution and vilification.  The proposed changes to the Racial Discrimination Act threaten this harmony.

We have a long history of welcoming newcomers from the waves of migration at the end of WWII to the Chinese, Vietnamese, and Thais and more recently the people from Bhutan, Sudan, Somalia, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Afghanistan.  Our culture has been enriched by them.  We have the influences of their cuisine and their music and the economic benefits of their hard work.

Think of Young Australian of the Year and contemplate the names Akram Azizi,, Marita Cheng, Khao Do and Tan Le.  The of the names you will hear during the broadcast of an AFL game – Heritier Lumumba, Tendai Mzungu, Nic Naitanui and many more.

They look different and sound different but should they be treated differently?  No and we should close the door to bigots and not allow them the space to or the opportunity to air their prejudices publicly.  We should judge people by their actions not by their looks or beliefs!

Senator Brandis is wrong on this one and our community does not want section 18C repealed.