Attorney-General George Brandis has hit out at criticism of Tony Abbott's religious beliefs, describing the "ridicule" to which the former prime minister was subjected as "bigotry at its most shameless".

The incessant sneering and ridiculing...[Tony] Abbott on account of his religious faith was bigotry at its most shameless. 

Senator Brandis, who last year defended people's "right to be bigots" amid debate over proposed changes to the Racial Discrimination Act, has told a roundtable meeting of religious and non-religious representatives that "religious freedom is every bit as important as political freedom".

But Senator Brandis said "members of Christian faiths, in particularly Catholic faith, are routinely the subject of mockery and insult by prominent writers and commentators".

He said insults directed towards Catholics had prompted former High Court justice Dyson Heydon to observe, when delivering the Acton Lecture in April 2014, that anti-Catholicism in Australia now might be called the racism of the intellectuals.

"Or perhaps he should have said the pseudo intellectuals," Senator Brandis said.

"The incessant sneering and ridiculing of the former prime minister, Mr Abbott, on account of his religious faith was bigotry at its most shameless - made worse, if possible, by the added hypocrisy of the fact that many of those who engaged in that sneering were the very same people who like to pose as the enemies of bigotry."

Last year, the Attorney-General defended Mr Abbott's government's proposed changes to the Racial Discrimination Act.

"In a free country people do have rights to say things that other people find offensive or insulting or bigoted," he had said.

The Abbott government later withdrew the changes to the Act.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/ridicule-of-tony-abbotts-religious-beliefs-is-bigotry-at-its-most-shameless-says-george-brandis-20151105-gkrd3s.html#ixzz3qaWvJHq4
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As the dwindling band of Abbott supporters still makes silly noises, discreet like kangaroo farts, we rest more and more on the reassurance that Abbott will not come back and try to unseat Turnbull... It's our right and duty as "intellectuals" to ridicule Abbott till Abbott's political legacy is completely shown as a sham. Not a hard task I must say. We were onto it since 2005...