The Queensland branch of the Liberal National party will this weekend vote on a resolution calling on the federal government to reinstate its proposed changes to section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act.
The motion, put forward by the Queensland Young LNP, will be debated at this weekend’s state council meeting.
It calls for the federal branch of the Coalition to reverse its decision to abandon changes to the act, but the motion would not be binding, as it calls on Coalition MPs and senators to be able to “exercise a free vote on any bill that proposes to remove the words ‘offend’, ‘insult’, ‘humiliate’ and ‘intimidate’ from the current legislation”.
The motion said changing 18C would “reaffirm our party’s core philosophical belief in the freedom of speech”.
Prior to the last federal election, the Coalition had proposed watering down the act by repealing clauses that make it an offence to offend, humiliate, insult or intimidate someone on the basis of race or skin colour. It would instead include the new offence of racial vilification.
The changes were scrapped in August last year, after fierce backlash from community groups.
Labor wants the prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, to rule out changes to 18C once and for all.
“This [LNP motion] shows that the desire to weaken race hate protections and bring back the right to be a bigot is in the Coalition’s DNA,” the shadow multicultural affairs minister, Michelle Rowland, said. “Despite the Liberal National party’s ideological obsession, communities around Australia have made their views clear. Section 18C has served Australians well for almost 20 years and should not be watered down.”
The government has indicated it will not reopen the 18C debate, with the attorney general, George Brandis, in October saying “the government’s position on section 18C has not changed”.
A number of Coalition backbenchers have pledged to support a crossbench bill to repeal “offend” and “insult” from the act, but without the support of the Coalition and Labor, the bill is unlikely to pass.
The state council meeting will debate more than 30 resolutions, including one thanking Tony Abbott for his service to the Australian people as prime minister.
Even if passed, the federal government has no obligation to implement the motions, which are symbolic rather than binding.
