Attorney General George Brandis has issued an exposure
draft of proposed amendments to the RDA aimed at watering down the
existing protections against offensive speech or, as he puts it,
increasing the protection for freedom of speech. So what's the
deal?
Section 18C of the RDA has been lying there not doing much for
many years. It might have stayed that way, had the charming Andrew
Bolt not been found by the Federal Court to have infringed it by a
series of articles in which he suggested light - skinned Aborigines
were using their race to advance their careers. 18C prohibits
public acts which are reasonably likely to "offend, insult,
humiliate or intimidate" other people and which are done
because of their race, colour or national or ethnic origin. There
is a very wide exception for acts done reasonably and in good faith
for purposes including fair comment on matters of public interest.
The Court found that Bolt had no such defence.
