Labor senator Pat Dodson says the debate about watering down the Racial Discrimination Act is a “creep back to bigotry and racism” and has used a speech to the Senate to underscore the power of words.
Dodson, a prominent Indigenous leader before his entry to federal politics, told the Senate on Thursday morning the “ruling class” had one, benign, perception of freedom but that freedom looks different if you are forced to fight for it.
“Nothing wrong with freedom, particularly if you are from the ruling class. There’s a hell of a lot wrong with freedom if you’ve got to battle to experience it,” Dodson said. “If you’ve got to fight for it.”
“I was born before the 1967 referendum, when we were not even counted in the census of this country as Aboriginal people and when this government did not have any power to make laws for Aboriginal people because we were excluded by the crafters of our constitution in 1901.
“The whole battle for recognition and for freedom, to enjoy the basics of being a citizen in this nation, had to be fought for by black and white Australians: Jessie Street, Faith Bandler and many others.
“What I see today is the ideological creep back to bigotry and to racism.”
Dodson’s intervention came during a debate on a private senator’s bill to remove part two of the Racial Discrimination Act, which sets out the various prohibitions on offensive behaviour based on racial hatred.
Other significant contributions on Thursday morning included the One Nation leader, Pauline Hanson, declaring she was fed up with being called a racist, and the Liberal Democratic party senator David Leyonhjelm comparing suppressing racism to suppressing flatulence.
Dodson urged people listening on to the debate to have no doubt “that racism isn’t something growing wild in the fields, it’s being tended in flower boxes in flats and houses, and that matter is something that we as all Australians should be working to get rid of.”
He said the death threats made this week against his Labor colleague and fellow West Australian Anne Aly – threats which followed the immigration minister, Peter Dutton, saying Malcolm Fraser had made a mistake in the 1970s in letting Lebanese Muslims into Australia because some of their descendants had gone on to be charged with criminal offences – showed that words were powerful.
An email sent to Aly’s office on 22 November with the subject line “Leb thugs” said: “Peter Dutton was right. Pack your bags and piss off back to where you came from and take all of your terrorist faith with you.”
Death threats against the Perth-based MP on her Facebook page are being investigated by the Australian Federal Police.
“Words do matter, and how we use words is critical,” Dodson said on Thursday. “With rights comes responsibilities.”
He said the parliament had a duty to stand up for vulnerable people rather than enhance the power of powerful people. “If this nation cannot stand up for the weakest, the poorest, and those who are most vulnerable because of their race, their ethnicity or their beliefs, then we have become a very sad replication of what democracy is about.”
Thursday morning’s debate was triggered by a bill introduced by Leyonhjelm to amend the RDA.
Leyonhjelm’s bill goes further than a separate private senator’s bill being advanced by the South Australian Liberal Cory Bernardi, which would remove the words insult and offend from section 18C of the RDA.
Liberal senators during Thursday’s debate made it clear they would not be voting in favour of the Leyonhjelm bill.
Speaking to his bill, Leyonhjelm said laws should not protect hurt feelings, and that in society, non-racists outnumbered racists.
“In an ideal world, none of us would entertain racist thoughts but some of us do, and some of us also make racist statements,” Leyonhjelm said.
“What 18C seeks to do is discourage racist speech in the hope that somehow that will change racist thoughts. It won’t. In fact it makes it more likely.
“Racists are prone to conspiratorial thoughts. Suppressing their speech is like suppressing flatulence, it won’t make itself known in the same way, but it will erupt somewhere.
“It’s far better to allow racist speech to attack it with more speech.”
Hanson used her speech to say she was fed up with being called a racist. She said her critics were unable to define her racism.
The One Nation leader made the argument that previous generations of migrants – Greeks, Italians, people who used to be called “wogs” – had used the experience of “Aussies having a go at them ... to become part of the community.”
“They assimilated,” Hanson said.
“It was taken with a good sense of humour. I think we have lost that in Australia. I think people have become so precious that you can’t say or do anything anymore.”
She argued Australia was now afflicted with “reverse racism”, where white Australians were not permitted to have opinions unless they were fortunate enough to be parliamentarians and were given the protection of parliamentary privilege.
“We can’t have an opinion. We can’t say anything any more,” Hanson said.
Hanson took on Dodson and his argument that words are powerful. She contended it was Middle Eastern religion that was “casting hate onto the rest of the world.”
“I’ve had it up to here with my tolerance,” Hanson said, making a gesture at her neck.
