More speech is better. Even for Yassmin

THE right response to speech is more speech, writes Helen Dale. Not getting opponents sacked or trying to beat them up. That’s not an acceptable way for anyone to behave.

ON THE weekend, my first novel, The Hand that Signed the Paper, was reissued. In its new preface, I discuss my strong suspicion section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act would have been applied to me had it been in force in 1995.

It goes without saying that I don’t like that particular law, and want to see it amended or repealed.

However, there are worse things in Australia — for those of us with the temerity to have views — than 18C.

Purveyors of Twitter outrage trying to get people sacked or disbarred is now a huge and bipartisan phenomenon, often directed at those with few resources. ‘Roo-punching Greig Tonkins — who attracted the ire of animal libbers a few months ago — is a zookeeper. Zookeepers are not rich.

Even Yassmin Abdel-Magied, dopey as she is, shouldn’t be fired for her tone-deafness. Robust criticism is fine. Trying to get her sacked is not.

It never ceases to amaze me how many people can’t tell the difference between arguing with an opponent and trying to destroy them as a human being.

Robust criticism is fine. Trying to get Yassmin Abdel-Magied fired is not. (Pic: Supplied)

There wasn’t a day went by, while I worked for Senator David Leyonhjelm, that he didn’t receive at least one missive demanding I be sacked. When we were in the news, he’d get tens, and occasionally hundreds. Sometimes they were copied to me.

In 2012, when I applied for admission as a solicitor in Scotland, formal objections — all from Australians — were directed at the Law Society. Flummoxed colleagues pointed out I’d acquired enemies who could hold grudges longer than Scots, a source of amazement.

Before that — in 2006 — when I was Associate to a Supreme Court judge — people wrote to him trying to get me sacked. Given Associates look after their judge’s post, I saw every item of hate mail. I still recall the regular correspondent who would address him as “Dear Justice Dickhead”.

In the years immediately after I won the Miles Franklin Award, Australia Post used to deliver my mail in sacks. Sometimes it contained surprises, too — dog poo was popular, and one hater decided to send rotten fish to my work.

Then there was the incident when someone turned up at my house, peppered me with questions, then tried to beat me up when I told him to get lost.

And yes, while it went badly for him (not everyone is six foot plus and handy with their fists), I’ve also had to engage in ridiculous shilly-shallying around with publishers. I’ve had my second novel accepted, then rejected, three times. I fully expect my current publisher to cop a blast as well (they’ve been warned).

Helen Dale (pictured with Senator David Leyonhjelm) has faced a lot of harassment over her book The Hand that Signed the Paper. (Pic: Chris McKeen)

That’s why, given the opportunity, I went freelance. People can’t really demand I sack myself.

However, I was able to go freelance in part because I’m a middle-aged queer with no children who (wholly inadvertently) wrote a best-selling novel in her youth, then invested the money wisely.

You cannot have a situation where the only people with freedom of speech are those who were lucky when young, or who inherited money, or who have rich spouses. When it comes to those who offend Islamist nutters, if they’re not rich as Croesus, have a sympathetic government, or have great and powerful friends, they not only don’t have freedom of speech — they may not live to tell the tale.

Many people don’t realise that the likes of Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Salman Rushdie stump up the money for their own security.

The right response to speech is more speech. Not getting opponents sacked, sending dog poo in the post, or trying to beat them up. That’s not an acceptable way for anyone — regardless of religious belief, background, or experience — to behave. And yes, given we’re stuck with 18C and defamation in their current form, frankly I’d rather people go to law than engage in acts of private vengeance.

No one has a right to a platform, and I’m not arguing there should be such a right. However, making people hostages to fortune for their views must stop.

Helen Dale won the Miles Franklin Award in 1995, studied law at Oxford, and was Senator Leyonhjelm’s Senior Adviser. Her second novel, Kingdom of the Wicked, will be released by Ligature in October this year.

Follow her on Twitter @_HelenDale