Malcolm Turnbull puts free-speech heat on Bill Shorten

Malcolm Turnbull has challenged Bill Shorten to back a new inquiry into free speech.

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten in Canberra yesterday. Picture: Kym Smith

Malcolm Turnbull has challenged Bill Shorten to back a new inquiry into free speech in a political stand-off over reforms to race-hate laws, dismissing “lectures” from Labor over human rights by linking the issue to border protection.

The Prime Minister went on the attack against Labor for denying the need to consider reforms, despite support for at least some change from Australian Human Rights Commission president Gillian Triggs.

After weeks of pressure from the Coalition backbench to hold an inquiry, Mr Turnbull yesterday confirmed a decision by federal cabinet to refer the issue to parliament’s joint committee on human rights.

“That’s what parliament should do: it should listen to people, it should enable them to make submissions, and that’s exactly what’s happening,” he told question time.

While Mr Shorten dismissed the inquiry, Mr Turnbull pointed to the spike in asylum-seeker arrivals when Labor was last in government — as well as 1200 deaths at sea — to suggest the Opposition Leader was in no position to talk about human rights. “We won’t be lectured on human rights by a party that was so neglectful, so careless of the human rights of those who lost their lives at sea,” he said.

The inquiry was given wide terms of reference yesterday to report by February 28 on whether sections 18C and 18D of the Racial Discrimination Act curb free speech and whether changes are needed to the way the AHRC handles complaints. The weight of opinion within the Coalition partyroom yesterday appeared to favour changing the race-hate law rather than making more limited reforms to the process of hearing complaints.

With ethnic groups worried about racial vilification and the Senate unconvinced about the need for change, Liberal MPs warned yesterday’s Coalition partyroom meeting that they risked an electoral backlash if they went too far. Those in the meeting told The Australian that about 18 MPs spoke and that one quarter of them favoured a process change to the AHRC while the majority backed a wider change to 18C.

While Labor denies the need for a review, the Prime Minister’s referral leaves Labor MPs on the human rights committee with ­little choice but to participate. The committee will hold public hearings and take submissions from the community. The Liberals on the committee include three members who favour changes to the law — Ian Goodenough, Linda Reynolds and James Paterson — and one who is advocating a process change, Julian Leeser.

Former minister Eric Abetz said yesterday he expected the outcome to be a change to the law, a view others expressed privately.

Mr Shorten criticised Mr Turnbull for once saying 18C was not a priority but being dragged “kicking and screaming” by conservatives to do something about it.

“How many new jobs will be created by amending section 18C? How will it help protect our AAA credit rating by amending section 18C?” Mr Shorten asked.

Labor legal affairs spokesman Mark Dreyfus said Labor was steadfast in its position that section 18C did not need to be changed. “Together with the free-speech defences contained in section 18D, it has functioned well for more than 20 years and served an important role in the development of modern, multicultural Australia,” Mr Dreyfus said.

Scott Morrison dismissed that argument and said the aim was to get a practical outcome on free speech. “There’s no point in engaging in gesture politics on this issue,” he said, expressing a sentiment Mr Turnbull put to the ­Coalition partyroom.

Mr Leeser warned the partyroom against change to 18C, a view backed by David Coleman, John Alexander and Craig Laundy. Senator Paterson responded by pointing to comments by Professor Triggs on ABC radio yesterday ­acknowledging the scope for change. Asked if she thought section 18C could be made stronger by replacing “offend” and “insult” with “vilify”, she said: “I would see that as a strengthening, it could be a very useful thing to do.”

Liberal MP Andrew Hastie said that showed Mr Shorten was out of step in the debate over the law.

“It’s absurd now that Bill Shorten and the opposition are positioned on the Left of Gillian Triggs on this issue,” he said.

Greens leader Richard Di Natale said 18C was a “confected, manufactured debate, cooked up by some whackos in the Coalition and propped up by a narrow segment of the media”. “The effect of these changes is to make it easier for Australians to be racist, and we won’t have a bar of it,” he said.