By Casey Neill
More than 120 people braved torrential rain in Dandenong to oppose changes to racial discrimination laws.
Local Labor MPs Mark Dreyfus, Clare O’Neil and Julian Hill hosted a forum about Section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act at The Castle in Dandenong on Thursday 8 December.
Section 18C makes it unlawful for a person to insult, humiliate, intimidate or offend someone because of their race or ethnic background.
The forum was in response to a federal inquiry into removing the words ‘offend’ and ‘insult’ from the law in the interests of free speech.
“They still cannot articulate what racist things people should be able to say that they can’t say now,” Mr Hill said.
The Bruce MP also said that many other laws restricted free speech, like defamation, terrorism and commercial in confidence legislation.
“Why is it just racism that they want to pick on?” he said.
He said there was no dissenting view put at the forum “and it was a public meeting – everyone was welcome to come”.
Mr Hill said attendees shared “some really powerful personal experiences with racism past and present”.
He said the most heartbreaking came from parents speaking about their kids’ experience with racism at school and trying to get employment.
He said the law generated just under 100 complaints a year nationally in the 20 years it had been in place.
Mr Hill said 90 or more cases were successfully mediated each year, and that less than 100 cases had ended up in court during the two decades.
“There was a lot of anger actually that this debate is being had only two years on from when Australia last had the debate,” he said.
“It was roundly howled down by the Australian community over two years ago.
“A debate like this is chewing up inordinate amounts of government time.
Mr Hill said leadership signals heavily influences what was acceptable in a community.
“The very fact that leaders in our country are having this intellectual debate that is driven by middle-aged white men in Canberra … is giving permission for people to express racism in communities,” he said.
On Wednesday 7 December, the State Government welcomed a joint submission calling for racial discrimination laws to be protected from more than 60 community groups, including the Dandenong-based Union of Greater Upper Nile States and Ethnic Communities Council of the South East (ECCOSE).
