Friday 29th of March 2024

mutton dressed up as lamb...

insults versus vilification...

The house of reps members are heading over to the Senate for the speech by the governor general, Sir Peter CosgroveBill Shorten and Malcolm Turnbull are walking together.


 

 

Liberal senator Chris Back is one of the backbenchers backing Cory Bernardi’s private bill to reform section 18c of the Racial Discrimination Act. The bill would remove “insult” and “offend” from the section.


Let me be very clear, words like intimidate, vilify should be remaining in the legislation. Nobody should humiliate, nobody should intimidate, nobody should vilify without being called to account. When it comes to insult, when it comes to offend, you can say anything to me. You could say to me ‘I hate the West Coast Eagles’ and I might be offended or insulted by that but you have the right to say that. And to the insult, or the offence, is it from you or from me? So let me be very clear on where I stand. Intimidate, humiliate, vilify must remain in the legislation but offend and insult are things, as I said to one of my Labor colleagues in the 44th parliament, I said it’s something you and I do to each other across the chamber all the time. And there is no case for offend and insult to be in the legislation. It must be removed.

The West Coast Eagles example may be the best example of how a lot of people who are supporting the reform do not get racial discrimination and its effects. IMO.

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/live/2016/aug/30/parliament-returns-with-plebiscite-18c-and-budget-cuts-on-agenda-politics-live

 

 

 

the right to be an idiot...

the next step...

"Recognition of first people in our nation's constitution is the next step in the path we are walking towards a country that can look itself in the eye knowing that we have come of age," Ms Burney said.

"Perhaps another great act of honesty and healing will be a permanent remembering of those Frontier Wars, just down the road at our National War Memorial.

"The chamber I have come from in New South Wales proudly hang the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island flags.

"Symbolism is important.

"I know symmetry's important in this place, but perhaps we could think that once we get constitutional recognition we could add another two flags to this chamber coloured red, gold, black, white, green and blue — the colours and the flags of the two first peoples of this nation."

 

Ms Burney also thanked her constituents and said she was proud of the cultural diversity of her seat of Barton.

"It is one of the greatest ironies that the seat named after the architect of the White Australia Policy has become one of the most multicultural in the country," she said.

 

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-08-31/first-female-indigenous-linda-burneys-passionate-maiden-speech/7802942

 

pushing forward to go backwards...

 

Conservative senator Cory Bernardi says he "won't be dissuaded" from his attempts to rewrite section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act, saying he is the person most in touch with the Liberal Party's core constituency, which is telling him to keep pushing for change.

Far from being a distraction from the government's economic agenda, as some Coalition MPs have suggested, the South Australian senator said on Sunday that freedom of speech was a "fundamental ethos of the Liberal Party".

 

 

read more: http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/cory-bernardi-says-he-wont-be-dissuaded-on-attempts-to-rewrite-section-of-racial-discrimination-act-20160903-gr88gt.html

 

Wow. The word "ethos" is a big word for Bernardi to manage. Add the word "fundamental" and we get a whiff of what the core of the Liberal (CONservative) party is mostly made of: rich white males with guns and trophy wives who do charity work after tennis...

the right to insult the bigots...

WHILE DEBATE over the merits of Section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act continues to rage, new research shows that an overwhelming majority of Australians support legislation that prevents insults on the basis of race, culture or religion.

We found that just 10% of Australians believe people should have the freedom to “insult” and “offend” people on the basis of race, culture or religion. Over 75% are opposed. The poll, conducted by Essential Research for the Cyber Racism and Community Resilience (CRaCR) and our other Challenging Racismresearch projects, undermines other claims that nearly 50% of Australians want the key words removed from Section 18C.

A Parliamentary Inquiry into 18C is moving towards its climax, with the committee due to report by February 28. It has been a mammoth task for the committee members, with thousands of submissions and dozens of witnesses.

Section 18C makes it unlawful to offend, insult, humiliate or intimidate someone on the basis of race and culture. It has been under attack from conservative commentators and politicians after News Ltd columnist Andrew Bolt was found to have breached 18C without an acceptable defence under the related Section 18D.

In the 2013 election, then prime minister Tony Abbott pledged to get rid of the section. Attorney-General George Brandis attempted to do this in 2014. A strong push-back by community groups forced Abbott to abandon the changes.

 

Read more:

https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/section-18c-s...

 

Cartoonists should still have the DUTY to insult politicians...