Government backtracks on Racial Discrimination Act 18C changes; pushes ahead with tough security laws

Updated

The Federal Government has taken contentious changes to racial discrimination laws "off the table" to protect national "unity", whilst moving to toughen the nation's security laws to combat home-grown terrorism.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott, flanked by Attorney-General George Brandis and Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, revealed the measures at a press conference in Parliament House in Canberra.

Mr Abbott said he was dumping Senator Brandis's draft laws, which would have removed key sections of the Racial Discrimination Act which the Attorney-General said made it illegal to "hurt the feelings of others".

The PM said he had made a "leadership call" to abandon the changes, because they had become a "complication" in the Government's relationship with the Australian Muslim community.

"When it comes to counter-terrorism, everyone needs to be part of Team Australia," Mr Abbott said.

"The Government's proposals to change 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act have become a complication in that respect.

"I don't want to do anything that puts our national unity at risk at this time and so those proposals are now off the table.

"It is, if you like, a leadership call that I have made after discussion with the Cabinet today.

"In the end, leadership is about preserving national unity on the essentials and that is why I have taken this decision."

Security agencies to get more powers, more money

Senator Brandis will now push ahead with the Government's plans to give security agencies the resources and legal powers it says they need to respond to technological change and "evolving" threats.

Security agencies, including the Australian Federal Police, ASIO, ASIS and Customs and Border Protection, will share an additional $630 million over the next four years to boost their operations.

The Government says about 160 Australians are currently fighting with or assisting terrorist groups in the Middle East.

Senior intelligence officials have told the ABC that the Government has been advised that the threat from global Islamist terrorism will rise over the next five years, because more jihadists will become active in more countries.

But the impact has not been felt yet on the nation's threat level.

"I stress that the terrorist threat here in this country has not changed. Nevertheless it is as high as it's ever been," Mr Abbott said.

He said the new measures would "make it easier to identify, to charge and to prosecute people who have been engaged in terrorist activities overseas".

"Such as, for instance, by making it an offence to travel to a designated area without a valid reason," he said.

Senator Brandis explained that travelling to certain locations of "terrorist activity" - which would be certified by the Minister for Foreign Affairs Julie Bishop - would be an offence.

He said travel would be permitted for "humanitarian, family or other innocuous purposes" but the onus of proof now rests with the individual.

"Naturally, that is a mechanism that will be used sparingly," the Attorney-General added.

It will be included in the Terrorism Foreign Fighter Bill which is slated to be introduced to Parliament when it resumes later this month.

The Government will also seek to broaden the laws to cover the prohibition of 'terrorism', rather than an individual act of terrorism, and make it an offence to promote or encourage terrorism.

The criteria for authorities to be granted control orders and search warrants will also be loosened.

Senator Brandis will also prepare legislation likely to compel phone and internet companies to retain customers' metadata - the basic information about a phone call such as the location of the caller.

Mr Abbott said that would include "the usual range of safeguards, warrants".

This is the second package of security measures to be announced by the Government.

The first wave of changes, to update and strengthen the powers of the domestic spy agency ASIO, were introduced to Parliament three weeks ago.

Shorten raises privacy concerns

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten has offered in-principle support to building national security, but has highlighted privacy concerns.

"It is most important that in the pursuit of national security, that we make sure that we respect the concerns of not treating ordinary Australians as criminals," he said.

Mr Shorten accused the Government of using the changes to counter-terrorism laws "as cover to finally dump his deeply unpopular changes to section 18C".

"Giving Australians the right to be bigots was always a destructive action," he said.

Shadow attorney-general Mark Dreyfus credited community groups with forcing the Government's "humiliating backdown".

"Australians right across the country at rallies, at public meetings, have made their voice clear," he said.

"In thousands of submissions made to the Government, saying: 'No ... this is not the kind of Australia we want'."

Mr Dreyfus has refused to commit Labor to the counter-terrorism measures, saying they need to be weighed against intrusions on people's liberty.

"The Government should not assume in relation to anything the detail of which has not been consulted on with the Australian community, consulted on with the Australian Parliament, that there is a blank cheque from Labor simply because Labor is conscious of the threat to our national security posed by acts of terrorism," he told Lateline.

"Of course we're conscious of the threat, but every time there is a proposal to make incursions into Australians' freedoms, into the things we value as a society, it's for the Government to justify those changes, to explain those changes and of course to consult deeply and at length with Australians about what the changes are."

Bolt, Wilson hit out at decision not to repeal 18C

Senator Brandis's proposals to change the Racial Discrimination Act had been roundly criticised by ethnic community groups and by some Coalition MPs.

In defending the changes, Senator Brandis told parliament that people have "a right to be bigots".

Conservative columnist Andrew Bolt - who was found to have breached the current Act in 2011 - is mourning the Government's move to abandon the changes.

"I think it is desperately sad that freedom of speech has so few defenders that the Government has failed to get this measure through," he told the ABC.

Human Rights Commissioner Tim Wilson said the decision not to repeal section 18C was "extremely disappointing".

"This government has squibbed at this important opportunity to allow for the human right to free speech in Australia," he said.

But the move was welcomed by Race Discrimination Commissioner Tim Soutphommasane.

"My concern about what was proposed by the Federal Government... was that it would embolden a small minority of Australians with bigoted attitudes to believe they had complete impunity to racially abuse and harass others in the name of free speech," he said.

"The decision that leadership sends on matters of race is fundamentally important."

But Parliamentary Secretary for Multicultural Affairs Senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells has congratulated the Prime Minister for his "very important decision".

"He's read the public mood and like me, he has seen the unity in our diversity .. is so very important," she told ABC Online.

"This has been a sensitive issue."

She added that Mr Abbott had "called it for Australia, and I think it is a very good call and it will be welcomed by many people in the community".

Senator Fierravanti-Wells said there was "no appetite" for a return of the proposals, arguing that the current legislation achieves the "adequate balance" between free speech and racial vilification.

Topics: security-intelligence, terrorism, abbott-tony, federal-government, defence-and-national-security, australia

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