“Stand up to extremists” Dreyfus to Abbott

March 19, 2014 by J-Wire
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Shadow Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus QC says it’s time the Prime Minister, Tony Abbott stands up to ideological extremists within his party and abandon its intention to rip away protections for Australians from racially motivated hate speech.

These changes fly in the face of sustained criticism from ethnic and community groups, who understand better than anyone the protection Section 18C provides.

Reports that Tony Abbott is going to steam ahead with the changes to Section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act, despite warnings from community groups and members of his own party room are deeply concerning.

By repealing this provision the Government is sending a message that they are prepared to give a green light to hate speech.

The Government should leave Section 18C exactly as it is. It has served our community well for almost 20 years.

Since 2011 the Liberal Party has indicated its intention to repeal the prohibitions against racially motivated hate speech in Section 18C, and Senator Brandis claimed his first legislative act would be to repeal it.

 

Comments

6 Responses to ““Stand up to extremists” Dreyfus to Abbott”
  1. Liat Nagar says:

    Bolt being pro-Jewish doesn’t excuse other opinions he publishes. He shouldn’t be supported across the board on the strength of one aspect of his beliefs.

  2. michael burd says:

    Left wing Dreyfus must think we Jews and Israel have so many friends, supporters and allies that we can afford to keep burning them.

    There is no stronger influential supporter of Jewish human rights and Israel in the Australian media Jewish or non Jewish than Andrew Bolt.

    He is right to say the Jewish community has thrown him under a bus
    .
    ‘Jew-haters at uni, ranting at chocolates’ >Andrew Bolt

    ‘I don’t fly With Jew Haters ‘> Andrew Bolt

    With friends like these who needs enemies.

    Great work Dreyfus !

    • Otto Waldmann says:

      Michael
      Verter zol men vegn un nit tseyln !
      Howz about weighing and not counting the words !
      True Andrew Bolt has been a reliable supporter of Israel and of our community, but in this case we beg to differ – I mean, obviously not all of us, that is if your argument above is all that valid….

      18C stands for, defends necessary ethics. What sort of people would desire to dispense of it/them (ethics) !!

  3. Liat Nagar says:

    Well, thank goodness. At last Mark Dreyfus has come out and taken a stand, and a passionate one at that.
    Jack Morris, if the situation is as you describe with clause 18C, just imagine how bad it would become without it. Take away all laws and regulations in regard to the verbal and written abuse of people, and you have open slather. Open slather will eventually incite more overt intimidation and physical violence.

  4. Jack Morris says:

    “The Government should leave Section 18C exactly as it is. It has served our community well for almost 20 years.”
    I just wish I had the skills of a cartoonist to render this blinkered view in an animated representation.
    I would show a picture of an old geezer holding up a placard that stands for the wonderment that is 18C facing a huge onslaught of comments coming from a crowd of people all uttering politically incorrect statements that shatter this delusion that we can protect ourselves with an ambiguous, ineffective law that can so easily be misinterpreted and misconstrued.
    The supposed victory against Frederick Toben, touted as a strong reason for retaining section 18C, is a case in point. Toben’s website, the Adelaide Institute is still up and running churning out vicious Holocaust denial. A petition with 700,000 signatures to Google to prevent a virulently anti-semitic website Jew Watch from having prominence in Google searches for the word “Jew” has achieved nothing.
    Yes Mark Dreyfus that is how successful 18C has NOT been.

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