George Brandis says 18C will remain in ‘current, distorted fashion’ as bill defeated in late-night vote by alliance of Labor, Greens, NXT and Jacqui Lambie

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

The Senate has thrown out the Turnbull government’s controversial legislative changes weakening section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act.



The government had sought to replace the words “offend, insult or humiliate” in section 18C with the term “harass” – which would have eroded the current protections against hate speech substantially.

But in a late night Senate debate on Thursday, a majority of senators in the chamber rejected the proposed reworking of the section, meaning the legislation will remain as it is.

Even among Australians worried about political correctness, 18C is not a big issue | Rebecca Huntley Read more

Labor, the Greens, the Nick Xenophon Team and the Tasmanian independent Jacquie Lambie voted together to defeat the proposed legislative change.

The late-night defeat on 18C came amid corridor wrangling on the government’s $48bn company tax cut package.

The negotiations have been complicated because the NXT leader, Nick Xenophon, had to leave Canberra because of a family bereavement and did not return to parliament until early on Thursday evening.

Xenophon has been arguing he will only allow a tax cut for firms with turnovers up to $10m but the government has been attempting to persuade the NXT to vote for a higher threshold – a turnover of $50m.

The government has persuaded the One Nation Senate bloc, and the Victorian senator Derryn Hinch, to vote for a tax cut for firms with turnovers of $50m.

The government needs a vote on the company tax package this week because it is the last sitting week before the May budget.

In an interview with the ABC on Thursday evening, the treasurer, Scott Morrison, refused to say whether the government would preserve the full $48bn package in the budget if the Senate only endorsed tax cuts for smaller firms.

The government is under significant pressure from big business lobby groups to commit to keeping the full tax cut package, regardless of the Senate result.

After the defeat of the proposed 18C changes at 10.30pm on Thursday night, the Senate went on to determine some changes to the Australian Human Rights Commission’s procedures.

The attorney general, George Brandis, summing up the lengthy and at times combative chamber debate on 18C, declared it was “a very sad day for the country”.

“As a result of tonight, the law will continue in its current, distorted fashion,” Brandis said.

He had attempted to amend the government’s 18C proposal to make it clear that harassment could occur online and did not require people to be in each other’s presence.

The government amendment also made it clear that harassment in the revised 18C could involve a single act – a definition that troubled the One Nation leader, Pauline Hanson, and the Australian Conservatives senator Cory Bernardi, who argued that the commonsense meaning of the word harassment was multiple acts.

Cory Bernardi (@corybernardi) It seems to rewrite the dictionary definition but alt.facts are common in parl. Hard to justify a single tweet constituting harrassment https://t.co/Asds8IiEXf

Regardless of the amendments, a majority of the Senate went on and rejected the entire legislative proposal.

Labor and the Greens declared the result a victory for racial tolerance and for multicultural Australia.

The Greens senator Nick McKim said the result meant senators stood “shoulder to shoulder” with multicultural Australia.

Immediately after the vote, the influential rightwing thinktank the Institute of Public Affairs declared the Turnbull government must take its proposed changes to section 18C to the next federal election.

Coalition's 18C overhaul a hollow and operatic outbreak of gesture politics | Katharine Murphy Read more

“If another Andrew Bolt, QUT, Bill Leak or Ashfield Uniting church-type case occurs that will be on the heads of Labor, Greens, Xenophon and Jacquie Lambie who voted today against removing restrictions on freedom of speech,” said Simon Breheny, director of policy at the IPA.

“Senators who voted against this bill have failed a test of their commitment to basic human liberty.”

But Amnesty International welcomed the Senate’s stance, saying Thursday’s vote should be the end of the matter.

“The message to prime minister Turnbull is clear: this conversation is over,” said Tammy Solonec, Indigenous rights manager at Amnesty International Australia. “He needs to get on the right side of history and firmly put an end to the debate around racist hate speech.”

The renewed debate has sparked a significant backlash from ethnic and religious communities, and it has divided the Coalition.

During a debate spanning many months, a number of moderate Liberal MPs defending marginal seats have urged the government leadership to leave 18C alone and focus instead on overhauling the processes administered by the Australian Human Rights Commission to ensure vexatious cases don’t end up in court.

Some ministers, including the deputy prime minister, Barnaby Joyce, have been open in arguing that the pursuit of 18C should not be a priority for the government.

Concetta Fierravanti-Wells, the minister for international development and the Pacific, warned during a party-room debate that taking on 18C would hurt the government in ethnic-minority communities and would invite a significant campaign against the government by the Labor at the next election.

But the right faction of the Liberal party has pursued the changes vigorously, and a number of government senators spoke strongly in favour of legislative change during the Senate debate.