Nicola Roxon defends laws on offence
In their blind haste to control Australians with a zeal unimagined by previous generations Labor defends its intent to trample upon our freedoms and Constitution. While Roxon, Wong, et al spin like tops they seem bent on ignoring senior legal advice and opinion. Power and control is taking on an ugly face in Australia. GC.Ed.
The exposure draft of the law has been criticised by media companies and retired NSW chief judge and ABC chairman Jim Spigelman on free speech grounds, as it would allow a discrimination claim over conduct that insulted or offended a person in relation to "protected attributes" including political opinion and religion.
Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee
Exposure Draft of Human Rights and Anti-Discrimination
Bill 2012
Professor Nicholas Aroney, University of Queensland
Professor Patrick Parkinson AM, University of Sydney
The authors of this submission are working together on a project funded by the Australian Research Council concerning the accommodation of minority cultures within the framework of a liberal democratic Australia.1 The first author is a specialist in constitutional law; the second is author of a well-known textbook on the Australian legal system. We accept the role that anti-discrimination laws have generally played in reducing unfair treatment of groups that have historically suffered discrimination. However, we have concerns about the negative consequences of anti-discrimination laws that go far beyond this purpose, and which may have unintended adverse effects upon social cohesion. This is one such Bill.
