Human rights commissioner Tim Wilson has joined calls for changes to racial discrimination laws, arguing many of the cartoons published by French magazine Charlie Hebdo would be banned in Australia under existing legislation.

Citing concerns from the Muslim community, the Federal Government last year dumped plans to remove section 18C from the Act making it illegal to offend, insult or humiliate based on racial grounds.

Liberal senators Cory Bernardi and Dean Smith argued that was a mistake and have used the attack on the Charlie Hebdo offices in Paris to call for the debate about free speech to be reopened.

Mr Wilson backed the call, saying the Racial Discrimination Act, as it stood, amounted to censorship.

"Around the world, if you're going to say you believe in free speech and that people should have the freedom to offend or insult somebody, then the solution cannot be censorship," he said.

"That is what we have in Australia today. We have a law that makes it unlawful to offend or insult somebody.

"So people are either being hypocrites when they say Je Suis Charlie and saying they defend these people's right to free speech, or they actually believe in free speech and recognise that laws that make it unlawful to insult or offend people are censorious and would see that Charlie Hebdo would be censored in Australia."

Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume. Watch Duration: 7 minutes 44 seconds 7 m What are the limits to free speech in Australia?

Mr Wilson said while he did not believe it should be illegal to offend or insult, there should be strong protections against publicly humiliating or denigrating a person based on their race.

Ghaith Krayem, from the Islamic Council of Australia, said cartoons that circulated after the Charlie Hebdo attacks were offensive to all Muslims.

"For Muslims, the character of the Prophet and our religious symbols are extremely important," Mr Krayem told ABC's 7.30.

"There's cartoons which depict him... in a sex act. How could that not be offensive to somebody who holds the character of that individual central to their whole belief system?

"Categorically, no Muslim in Australia would support what happened in Paris last week, but on the same basis, we have a right to be offended by what people do."

Mr Krayem said whilst people had a right to have their opinions heard, that should not excuse "bigotry".

"I understand what [Tim Wilson] is saying. People have a right to have a view and have that view heard," he said.

"But at the same time, I have a right to be able to say 'what you're saying hurts me and it's not for you to dictate how I respond to that bigotry'. Because it is, it's bigotry."

Senator calls for Act to be revisited

Senator Bernardi, who has co-sponsored a private senator's bill reviving the proposed changes to the Act, said the issue must be revisited.

"Any suggestion that we shouldn't have freedom of speech or shouldn't be able to discuss controversial issues because we're going to insult or offend others, I think hands those who want to stifle our freedoms a victory," he said.

"I'm not prepared to do that under any circumstances."

Race discrimination commissioner Tim Soutphommanse labelled Senator Bernardi's call ill-founded and ill-informed and said there was no appetite to change the Act.

"There's no cause for revisiting the Racial Discrimination Act debate," he said.

"We had extensive, exhaustive debate about this issue last year and the overwhelming majority of the Australian public have made emphatically clear that the current law should be retained."

Mr Soutphommanse also said many of the Charlie Hebdo cartoons could run in Australian publications without breaching racial discrimination laws.

"People can make complaints under the Racial Discrimination Act only about things which concern the attributes of race, colour, ethnicity and national origin," he said.

"If a complaint is made about offence that is taken on the basis of religion, this is something that does not come under the Racial Discrimination Act.

"There is in any case wide protection for anything that is artistic work or fair comment on matters of public interest, provided that it is done reasonably and in good faith."

Acting Prime Minister Warren Truss said Australians should not censor themselves in the wake of the Paris attack but made it clear the Government would not be pursuing changes to the Act.

"We do have a right to speak out strongly and in issues like this we need to speak certainly with clarity and assurance," he said.

"That doesn't necessarily mean we have to change 18C - there is certainly a great deal of capacity for us to speak out and speak out strongly within the existing law, and that'll be respected by our system."