"We are toughening the law by making it clearer," he said.

"This will strengthen the protection of Australians from racial vilification and the strengthen the protection of free speech."

Labor said it will foster more race hate and was a betrayal of Australia's multicultural communities.

"Every single ethnic community in Australia has been portrayed by ths government," said shadow attorney-general Mark Dreyfus.

Liberal MP Craig Laundy, who holds the ethnically-diverse Western Sydney seat of Reid, told ABC radio he would fight any change to the wording. Janie Barrett

"It is a weakening of the protections which have served Australia very well for more than 20 years.

"And for the Prime Minister to stand up and pretend, and it is only a pretence, because he's had his chain ranked by the right wing of his party, for the Prime Minister to pretend that this is a strengthening of the law is simply nonsense."

The legislation for the change will be introduced into the Senate first and has little prospect of passing because they are opposed by Labor, the Greens and NIck Xenophon.


Activist group GetUp gave notice it would be targeting the government over the issue.

Shadow attorney-general Mark Dreyfus: "This is an obvious power grab by Peter Dutton." Alex Ellinghausen

Those against change, who included Craig Laundy, Julia Banks, David Coleman, Russell Broadbent and John Alexander, argued inside the party room that the government should instead only adopt a procedural change which would eliminate vexatious and frivolous claims. The prime example was a claim lodged against some Queensland university students which took years to resolve and which stoked the push to change the Act.

Also against the change was conservative Senator and minister Concetta Fierravanti-Wells who is the government's chief multicultural ambassador.

Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce argued an obsession with the issue would lose the Coalition votes and he urged the party to move on.

Liberal conservatives Eric Abetz applauded the party room decision.

"Freedom of speech is a fundamental virtue underpinning the very fabric of Australian society. Under the current law, we've seen an out of control regulator limiting this fundamental right by trying to stop Facebook posts and restrict freedom of the press," Senator Abetz said.

"These common-sense reforms will go a long way to ensuring that Australians can engage in free speech while maintaining protections against racially motivated harassment and intimidation."


The Guardian reported former prime minister Tony Abbott, who dumped plans to change 18C when he was leader, begrudgingly congratulated Mr Turnbull.

Even before the party-room debate got underway, on what is also national Harmony Day, which is supposed to celebrate cultural diversity, there were initial outburst of anger.

Australia/Israel and Jewish Affairs Council executive director Colin Rubenstein called the proposed change "bad policy and bad politics".

"What is it you can't say... that critics would like to say?" he told Sky News.

"There is no justification for making that change."

Dr Rubenstein said the rules had "worked very well for 20 years except for one particular decision" and all that needed change was the process.

Government sources who supported the changes said there was a need to appease the base which had become aggrieved at what it perceived as an erosion of free speech and a resurgence of political correctness.

Shadow minister for citizenship and Tony Burke said the government has given the green light to " forms of racial hate speech that are currently not permitted".


"Now, that might not be real for George Brandis or Malcolm Turnbull. But it is real for the person who gets humiliated on public transport on the way home. It is real for the child who has to stand there while his or her parents are being abused in a shopping centre.

"What forms of racist hate speech does Prime Minister Turnbull want to be able use that he can't now under the current law?"

Trade Minister Steven Ciobo said the Coalition needed to get back to the issues that mattered to voters. Of 18C, he said "a small niche of people who are preoccupied by this".

Senator Xenophon reaffirmed he would not support any change to the wording, meaning it would not pass the Senate .

He said changes to process were sufficient to address the problems with the Act.

"Clearly the process has become the punishment in many cases," he told ABC radio.

"It is beyond me why some of these cases got to the stage that they got to only to be easily dealt with once section 18D, the defence was considered."