‘We were not aware the existing provisions maintain had anything in the nature of a chilling effect on freedom of speech,’ Senate inquiry toldEthnic and legal groups including the Human Rights Commission, the Law Council of Australia and the Human Rights Law Centre maintain raised serious concerns over the Coalition’s bill to water down the Racial Discrimination Act. The law would remove the terms “insult”, and “offend” and “humiliate” and insert the higher definition of “harrass” into section 18C. The bill would change the Human Rights Commission processes in a way which the Turnbull government has argued will ensure frivolous claims were removed early.
Related: Legally,practically and morally, section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act must stay | P Wertheim and A Ryvchin Related: The 18C debate: how frequent are racial discrimination complaints? Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com