"It's disappointing that the Coalition leadership is pressuring Coalition senators to not support a policy that until last month the Prime Minister was personally committed to," Mr Roskam said. John Roskam: "Disappointing" from Prime Minister's Office Credit:Matthew Piper A trio of government senators are, however, still threatening to cross the floor and support Senator Day's private members bill, which would amend the section of the Act to no longer make it an offence to insult or offend someone on the basis of their race. The section 18C laws became widely known as the "Bolt laws" after they were used in 2011 to prosecute conservative commentator Andrew Bolt Senator Day's bill is being co-sponsored by Liberal senators Cory Bernardi and Dean Smith as well as crossbencher David Leyonhjelm, but the Family First senator refused to provide names of other supporters. He said he was hopeful the bill, which will be introduced into the Senate on Thursday, would pass the upper house when it was put to a vote, likely in several months time.

"For one reason or another they were not able to co-sponsor it," Senator Day said. "I understand but that won't deter me from introducing the bill today and speaking next Thursday." Family First senator Bob Day and Liberal Democrat senator David Leyonhjelm. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen Senator Bernardi's open support for the amendment is in defiance of Prime Minister Tony Abbott, who dropped plans to change section 18C last month when he sought to introduce enhanced terror laws into Parliament. But while some Coalition senators are believed to have withdrawn support for Senator Day's bill, new Queensland senator James McGrath is expected to vote for the bill, along with West Australian Dean Smith and Senator Bernardi. South Australian senator Sean Edwards was one Liberal strongly considering co-sponsoring Senator Day's bill, but told Fairfax Media on Thursday that while he would have liked to have seen the government continue with its original plans, he accepted the "pragmatic" decision to dump it in a bid to woo the Muslim community in light of the heightened terror alert.

"The government lowered its priority and we've moved on," Senator Edwards said. "I respect Senator Day's decision to take this forward and I would have in another time supported the government with it." New West Australian Senator Linda Reynolds was also considering co-sponsoring the bill but supports the government's reasons to focus on national security instead. Senator Reynolds said she welcomed the robust debate on free speech Senator Day's bill would trigger and would "wait to see the outcome" of the public discussion before deciding on her vote. Senator Day's amendment has not formally been put to the government party-room so there is no official Coalition position on it, other than that the government's own pledge it will not be revisited.

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten on Thursday said Mr Abbott should also pull Senator Bernardi into line. "I call upon the Abbott government to ask Senator Bernardi, who's a Liberal - not a member of the crossbench, not an individual independent senator - to withdraw their support for watering down laws which currently protect all Australians against hatespeech," he said. "The government of Australia needs to disassociate itself from the actions of a senior member of its Senate team." Asked in question time on Thursday about Senator Bernardi's co-sponsoring of the bill, acting Prime Minister Warren Truss restated that the government "does not propose to proceed with changes to Section 18C". Loading

"That commitment remains in place and that demonstrates our wish to encourage all Australians to live in tolerance with one another," he said. Follow us on Twitter