Source document: https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/1697634379691.pdf (Australia)
Submission on s18C of The Racial Discrimination Act The provisions of 18C should not be weakened.

It would be a retrograde step for people or organisations to be allowed under the law to offend, insult or humiliate another person or group due to their race, colour or ethnic origin.

This would mean going back to the 1950s era in Australia when people of various ethnic origins had to endure daily barbs, insults and name-calling.

This was a very unequal society.


18C and its defence via 18D have been carefully and well thought out and allow the right justification for so-called racially discriminatory comments.

The Bolt case showed how 18C and 18D worked exactly the way they were meant to under the law.

The comments offended those of a certain racial origin, and those comments were not based on fact.

This meant that under the Act that the comments were not lawful.

This is exactly the way 18C and 18D should work.


This is precisely why 18C should not be weakened.

18C should ensure that people, groups or organisations cannot go around causing offence and humiliation to other people due to their race or ethnic origin.

We live in a civil society where vulnerable groups and minorities should be afforded respect under the law.

Society should never be condone offending, insulting and denigrating people because of their race.
18D provides the only justification for such comments.

To offend, insult, humiliate or intimidate someone or a group of people due to their race or national or ethnic origins is a form of bullying.

Bullying leads to division in society.

This is not what Australia wants.

Australia is striving for cohesion in society, not division.

Where there is bullying, the targets of racial insults and offence often suffer economically and psychologically.

This is a cost to Australian society.


Racial discrimination can mean that the targets/victims of that offence may be less productive at work due to what they are experiencing, they may be fearful of dealing with those that bully them, and they may lose days at work due to stress and other psychological effects of that offence and humiliation.

Perhaps 18C should also include provisions to meet the costs of lost pay, or health costs due to the effects on a person or group due to racial discrimination.
Many vulnerable people and vulnerable groups who may be the target of racial discrimination do not have the knowledge or financial resources to mount legal action against those who discriminate against them.

Therefore, the victims of racial offence, insults and humiliation need to rely on 18C to protect them.

In societies where racial abuse, although passive offence in terms of verbal and visual manifestations, is allowed to propagate this has tended to lead to physical aggression.
Nazi Germany started with verbal offence and denigration of minority groups and individuals in society.

The Cronulla riots and physical violence at Maroubra started with verbal insults, progressed to signage, and then physical aggression and violence against those who were perceived to belong to an ethnic minority group.

18C must stay strong to protect Australians from racial abuse in any form.
It would be a failure for Australian society if the law pandered to racist tendencies of noisy powerful lobby groups and powerful people, rather than protecting those whom the Racial Discrimination Act was put in place to protect.

18C must remain intact or indeed be strengthened to prevent people from suffering offence, racial insults, abuse, denigration, or humiliation due to their race, colour, or national or ethnic origin.

A just society cannot allow such abuse to occur.


Respect in society is integral to a cohesive society, which is what Australia must remain.

Freedom of speech in AustraliaSubmission 240