Tim Wilson: 'free speech has been pushed
aside in favour of laws and regulations designed to stop people being
offensive to each other.' Photograph: PR
Australia’s new human rights commissioner, Tim Wilson, has called
for the full repeal of the s18C offensive speech provisions of the
Racial Discrimination Act and has flagged defamation, online speech and
the film classification system as areas he would be considering in his
new role.
“Increasingly free speech has been pushed aside in favour of laws and
regulations designed to stop people being offensive to each other, a
steadily expanding corpus of anti-discrimination and defamation law, and
the growing momentum towards restrictions on speech online,” Wilson
wrote in the Australian on Wednesday.
Wilson, who has also resigned from the Liberal party to take on the
role, argued free speech was “being neglected” and he would be focusing
on aspects of individual freedoms. He said he supports the full repeal
of s18C of the Racial Discrimination Act which deals with offensive
behaviour.
“The most obvious freedom of speech issue this parliament will face
is the Coalition's promise to repeal section 18C of the Racial
Discrimination Act. Section 18C has recently been controversial because
of the Andrew Bolt case but, as its supporters are first to say, it has
been used against many other Australians.”
But Stephen Blanks, the secretary of the NSW Council for Civil
Liberties, said Wilson's focus overlooked more serious human rights
breaches.
"They are issues which can be focused on, but they're not the most
important issues a human rights commission should be addressing at this
time. Australia has plenty of other breaches of fundamental human
rights," he said.
"The arbitrary detention of people on national security grounds with
adverse ASIO security assessments without any proper review process is
obviously the most serious breach of fundamental freedom that could be
imagined."
Blanks also questioned Wilson's commitment to pushing for the full repeal of s18C of the Racial Discrimination Act.
"Repealing the section altogether would be throwing the baby out with
the bathwater. We need strong laws which prevent Holocaust deniers from
going about their trade and other people that want to attack people on
purely racial grounds and stir up racial violence," he said.
The federal opposition and the Greens have reacted with scepticism to
the appointment. Shadow attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, said the
appointment was part of the government’s “political agenda”.
“By appointing Mr Wilson, Senator Brandis has sent a strong signal
about exactly the kind of blatant political agenda he wishes to pursue
as Attorney-General.”
“How can Mr Wilson possibly undertake the role of a Human Rights
Commissioner when it’s obvious he has such contempt for the commission
itself,” Dreyfus said.
Greens senator Penny Wright expressed similar concerns and said
attorney general George Brandis “had already made it clear he thinks
some human rights are more important than others, including that free
speech ought to trump anti-discrimination laws.”
Some concerns have also been raised over Wilson’s commitment to
freedom of speech in previous comments he has made. In a May 2011 tweet
Wilson wrote: “walked past Occupy Melbourne protest, all people who
think freedom of speech = freedom 2 b heard, time wasters … send in the
water cannons.”
The president of the commission, Gillian Triggs, speaking on ABC
Radio, offered support for Wilson’s appointment, but cautioned against
playing party politics with the commission. “This is not the place for
party-political rhetoric,” she said.
In a later statement on Wednesday, Triggs welcomed Wilson’s focus on
freedom of speech. “Mr Wilson has seven years’ experience as policy
director at the Institute of Public Affairs and is particularly
concerned to support Liberal approaches to freedom of speech,” Triggs
said.
“We look forward to having him join our team as we continue to meet the challenges of protecting human rights in Australia.”
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