AHRC

“It is disappointing that the human rights committee has today failed to recommend the complete repeal of 18C as an option for reform in its freedom of speech inquiry report tabled today,” says Simon Breheny, Director of Policy at free market think tank the Institute of Public Affairs. “While the option to replace the words “offend”, “insult”, and “humiliate” with

“Contributions to public debate from taxpayer-funded, ideologically-biased groups distort the public policy process,” says Simon Breheny, Director of Policy at free-market think tank the Institute of Public Affairs. Research by the Institute of Public Affairs has found that of the 157 pro-18C submissions given by groups to the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights freedom of speech inquiry, 42 were

Populism is being mainstreamed in Australia. At a book launch former prime minister Tony Abbott set out an aggressive populist agenda for Australia – presumably a second Abbott government. Abolish the renewable energy target, abolish the Human Rights Commission, cut spending, reform the Senate, and cut immigration. This from a man who couldn’t amend a single section of the Racial

The IPA’s latest report, the Legal Rights Audit 2016, was today featured in the legal affairs section of The Australian ($): An audit of federal legislation has found that the erosion of fundamental rights by the nation’s politicians shows no sign of ending despite the expenditure of millions of dollars on publicly funded human rights agencies. … “The extent to which

One of the most obvious features of the parliamentary inquiry into section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act has been the volume of government agencies and government-funded left-wing interest groups that have contributed to the body of submissions. These beneficiaries of government largesse are uniformly in favour of more government, and defending the existing prohibition of offensive, insulting, humiliating and

The IPA’s Simon Breheny discusses the findings of the Galaxy Poll which found 48% of Australians support 18C reform with 38% opposed.

The IPA’s Dr Chris Berg and Simon Breheny presented the case for 18C repeal to the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights. The IPA was live at the hearing, here are some of the highlights.   Full coverage the IPA’s presentation to the Joint Committee can be found here: 

New opinion poll research shows that 95% of Australians think free speech is important to them with over 57% saying it is “very important”. “Much to the surprise of some members of the media and the political class, free speech matters,” said Simon Breheny, Director of Policy at the Institute of Public Affairs. “When 95% of respondents agree that an

Below is an excerpt from the foreword of this report by John Roskam. In 1943, in the midst of the Second World War – a war fought to defend human freedom – the Institute of Public Affairs was founded. Enshrined in the Constitution of the Institute of Public Affairs is the objective to ‘further the individual, social, political and economic

It is disappointing when politicians stir up racial and religious tensions for their own political purposes. And it’s not politicians on the Right I’m talking about. It’s Bill Shorten, who spent the better part of last week trying to mobilise ethnic and religious communities against increasingly likely changes to section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act, with warnings of “a