With fresh moves afoot to remove the words insult and offend from section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act[1], the Pirate Party calls upon Parliament to get serious about supporting free speech.
“Pirate Party Australia is well aware of the risks around state censorship of opinions,” said Simon Frew, President of Pirate Party Australia. “We fought the Internet censorship laws of the Rudd Government and we opposed the Gillard Government’s attempt to extend section 18C in ways that would have banned causing offence on the grounds of religion and political opinion.”
The Pirate Party believes constraints on the right to express an opinion should be removed. But the principles behind free speech mean little unless they are applied universally, and there are much more serious and urgent threats to freedom of speech than section 18C, including:
- Border Force gag laws — these are currently being challenged by health professionals in the High Court as a serious impediment to political speech in the public interest[2]. These laws, which include gaol terms for those speaking about conditions inside Australia’s off-shore detention centres, are among the most draconian attacks on free speech ever carried out in this country.
- Undermining of parliamentary privilege — police are even now rummaging through private parliamentary records to hunt down the leaker of some NBN corporate documents. This should never happen again — the right of whistleblowers to provide information in the public interest to elected representatives must be protected properly.
- Defamation laws — these are highly restrictive in Australia, and suppression orders are being churned out in growing numbers. Unlike section 18C, suppression orders and defamation laws overwhelmingly serve the needs of power and privilege.
- Offensive language provisions in criminal summary offences — many thousands of people are charged under these laws every year, vastly more than those affected by section 18C.
- Proposals for “ag-gag” laws, which would criminalise the reporting of animal abuse in factory farms. Trespass laws already protect against unwarranted intrusions — “ag-gag” laws merely provide additional protection to a politically-connected industry, for no purpose other than to conceal wrongdoing.
- The National Security Legislation Amendment Act (No.1) 2014, which punishes reporting on ‘Special Intelligence Operations’ with a five year prison term. A society that respects free speech cannot force journalists to operate under such oppressive restrictions[3].
“The Pirate Party is glad to see this sudden upswing of interest in free speech,” noted Simon Frew. “As all anti-censorship activists know, the best answer to foul speech has always been to debate and defeat it, not to suppress it.”
“Considering the myriad ways that the Coalition Government has worked to restrict speech, we find the focus on the Racial Discrimination Act to be cynically motivated. Speech is only free if it applies to your political opponents, and as the Border Force gag laws demonstrate, the Government has no issue with silencing those who they disagree with,” Mr Frew continued. “Further, we would like to call-out One Nation’s deeply hypocritical stance on speech[4]. They want to go as far as removing Section 116 of the Australian Constitution, which protects the freedom to practice any religion in Australia. Supporting the right to cause offence while implementing laws to restrict the free speech of others shows that they only want speech which benefits them and their ideology.”
“To be a convincing advocate for free speech, you must be consistent. The extremely selective approach of the last few weeks risks bringing the vital cause of free speech into disrepute,” he concluded.
[1] http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-08-30/cory-bernadi-leads-coalition-push-to-change-18c-race-hate-laws/7796356
[2] https://ama.com.au/ausmed/doctors-challenge-border-force-gag-laws
[3] http://theconversation.com/national-security-gags-on-media-force-us-to-trust-state-will-do-no-wrong-32103
[4] http://www.onenation.com.au/policies/islam