Senator says he is negotiating with the government on ‘trade-offs that increase individual rights and freedoms’

David Leyonhjelm calls for repeal of 18C in return for his vote on industrial relations

Senator David Leyonhjelm has signalled he is prepared to trade his vote on industrial relations legislation for legal changes he says would increase freedom, such as repealing laws that prohibit racist speech.

On Friday Malcolm Turnbull indicated that the government is open to changes to section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act as part of a process of review initiated by the Coalition senator Dean Smith.

Leyonhjelm has said he would vote down the Australian Building and Construction Commission bill if a vote were held today, citing its harms to individual freedoms such as removal of the right to silence.

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But in comments to Guardian Australia, Leyonhjelm said he was engaged in negotiations with the government based on “trade-offs that increase individual rights and freedoms in other areas”.

A spokesman for Leyonhjelm said the Liberal Democrat senator had met Turnbull on Thursday.

The senator said he had not demanded changes to firearms laws. He confirmed that repealing section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act, which prohibits intimidating, insulting, offending or humiliating people based on race, was one of his suggestions.

Last week Smith said he wanted a joint parliamentary committee to hold an inquiry examining all dimensions of free speech, not just the curbs on expression imposed by section 18C.

On Friday Turnbull told a press conference in Tasmania that “many people feel that the provisions of 18C impose unreasonable restraints on free speech or impose restraints on free speech over and above what is needed to prevent hate speech”.

“Senator Smith has suggested that it be looked at by a committee and parliamentary committees are a good way of examining issues of this kind.”

Turnbull also reiterated the government’s commitment to the ABCC and registered organisations bills, although it is unclear if they will be brought to a vote this year.

Leyonhjelm would not outline his other suggestions to Turnbull but said the list was “non-exhaustive” and the government was welcome to make its own proposals.

In October Leyonhjelm and the government were embroiled in controversy after he claimed the Abbott government had struck a deal to add a sunset clause to the importation ban on an Adler lever-action shotgun in return for his vote on the industrial relations bills. He said the Turnbull government had reneged on the deal, leading Labor to claim it had attempted to trade “guns for votes”.

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Leyonhjelm’s vote on the ABCC and registered organisations bills may be critical after the resignation of Bob Day, and the referral of Day’s and the One Nation senator Rodney Culleton’s Senate eligibility to the high court.

On Friday the backbench Liberal MP Julian Leeser proposed a streamlined process to terminate unmeritorious section 18C cases.

The reform calls come before a decision from the federal circuit court on Friday in one of the most high-profile 18C cases. The case against Queensland University of Technology and students relates to Facebook posts about being ejected from an Indigenous computer lab, and has been running for three years.

In August Coalition Senate backbenchers signed a petition calling for the words “insult” and “offend” to be removed from section 18C. Turnbull has not ruled out changing the section.