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Tony Abbott has today praised Malcolm Turnbull for crumbling to the right-wing factions within the coalition, and readdressing the liberal party echo chamber issue of amending the racial hatred language section of the Racial Discrimination Act.
The former Prime Minister, who attempted to change 18C and remove the limits on freedom of speech when talking about black and brown people, told the Liberal Party Room the Prime Minister and the Government were doing the right thing.
“Congratulations to the Prime Minister and the Government of having another go on this,” Mr Abbott said. “Free speech is fundamental to our civilisation and is clearly imperilled by 18C as it stands.”
“Australians are sick of having to scan their immediate surroundings before saying something dicey at a social event or in the workplace”
“As it stands, 18C is an attack on our freedom to drop racist jokes without having to scan the room”
Despite the fact that the current variation of the Racial Discrimination Act has been quite inneffective at stemming rampant casual racism in Australian society, Malcolm Turnbull took to his party room this morning to reform the Racial Discrimination Act by removing the words of “offend, insult and humiliate” in favour of an offence of harass or intimidate.
The bill was endorsed by older-religious people in the Liberal Party room despite reservations among some moderate MPs.
“Everyday Australians, like Andrew Bolt, are sick of being taken to court for saying things like the Stolen Generation never happened or that black people aren’t capable of raising children”
“To force people like Andrew and myself to have to pander to the oppressed and consider their feeling or cultural sensitivities… It’s an affront to democracy”
