DEMOCRACY’S HEALTHIEST ILLNESS
Our $300,000 per year Mr Manners is having us on.
Our $300,000 per year Mr Manners is having us on.
The Australian Race Discrimination Commissioner is now claiming that the Human Rights Commission’s legal action against Bill Leak is merely "a matter of public debate":
Race Discrimination Commissioner Tim Soutphommasane has denied prejudging a racial vilification complaint against The Australian’s cartoonist Bill Leak, rejecting suggestions that public debate is being “shut down” by the Racial Discrimination Act …
Interrogating the commissioner at a Senate estimates hearing in Canberra, Liberal senator David Fawcett suggested Leak’s depiction of an Aboriginal policeman “clearly sober, in authority, taking a very reasonable action” was in fact a “very positive portrayal”.
Dr Soutphommasane answered: “Cartoons will be subject to all matter of public debate. It’s a healthy part of our democracy that we have that debate.”
Sure, Dr Tim. All public debates involve demands for explanation, warring legal teams and potential Federal Court appearances. As it happens, Mark Steyn only a few hours earlier anticipated - and demolished - exactly this line of argument:
Mr Leak's opponents are not attempting to engage him in debate; they're attempting to close down the debate. And there's no point getting in a debate with someone whose only argument is "Shut up – or else."
In that sense, the Australian "human rights" regime and the Charlie Hebdo killers are merely different points on the same continuum: They're both in the shut-up business, and they shut you up pour encourager les autres. They know that, for every cartoonist they silence, a thousand more will never peep up in the first place.
So this isn't a debate about aboriginal policy or Islamic imperialism or anything else. It's a debate about whether we're free to debate. I take the view that the Australian state, like the Canadian state, should not be in the shut-up business. And, when they are, it's they who are the issue, not you. When it's a contest between a book or cartoon, on the one hand, and, on the other, a guy who says, "You can't say that!", it's the latter who's on trial. If you're on the side that's saying "Shut up!", you're on the wrong side.
Also on the wrong side are journalists who won't speak up - which, by the way, is most of them:
Liberal MP Andrew Hastie has called on journalists to speak out against the Human Rights Commission’s investigation of cartoonist Bill Leak, while predicting a fresh push to amend or repeal section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act …
“I’d call on Fairfax and the ABC and The Guardian and others not to leave a comrade on the battlefield; I haven’t heard a lot from them and they should be defending him,” the former SAS commander said. “Politicians have a job to do but it shouldn’t just be upon politicians to resolve this issue — where are the other voices in the public square?”
Further from Jennifer Oriel:
Freethinker Bill Leak is a victim of prejudice so entrenched in our legal and political system it is sparking anti-establishment revolt across the West. It is the conversion of the human rights movement into a bigot rights industry.
And it costs us $25 million every year.
UPDATE. The real victim in all of this, of course, is Gillian Triggs:
Brandis censured by the Senate for failing to defend Triggs. Regarded as unfit to hold the office. Hasn't learnt. #estimates pic.twitter.com/uhHbVAGoKq
— Senator Penny Wong (@SenatorWong) October 18, 2016
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