Free Speech

Bill Leak wrote his last public speech for the launch of his new book, Trigger Warning, which he delivered at the Centre for Independent Studies in Sydney on Wednesday night. Here’s an excerpt below: Ladies and gentlemen, I know it’s International Women’s Day, so first I must apologise for not being a woman. It’s particularly regrettable that I’m not a

Section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act will be repealed. It won’t happen today, and it may not happen in this term of parliament. But section 18C has become such an iconic issue for such a broad group of Australians that its continuing presence on the statute books is utterly unsustainable – and calls to ignore section 18C and the

It is disappointing that the parliamentary committee charged with looking into one of Australia’s most insidious anti-free speech laws has failed to recommend its repeal. The Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights tabled its final report on Tuesday following its inquiry into freedom of speech in Australia. Specifically, the committee was asked to assess the operation of section 18C of

Earlier this month Professor Andrew Jakubowitz of the taxpayer-created Cyber Racism and Community Resilience Research Group attempted to debunk a poll commissioned by the IPA showing a plurality of Australians supported section 18C reform. As I explained on Flat White, his argument that the IPA was pushing loaded questions fell apart when exposed to minimal scrutiny. Professor Jakubowitz’s CRaCR later

“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

Australia’s race commissioner Tim Soutphommasane is taking on an Orwellian mission this week, telling members of parliament they need to keep free speech restrictions in place to protect liberal values. The debate over section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act is heating up ahead of a parliamentary committee report into the law due to be released later this month. Soutphommasane

The free market think tank the Institute of Public Affairs has today warned that only full repeal of section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act would fix the problems with the provision that have been identified in the ongoing joint parliamentary inquiry into freedom of speech. Reports in The Australian today suggest that members of the Turnbull government are considering

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.