The Turnbull government is expected to proceed with its controversial overhaul of the Racial Discrimination Act in the Senate on Wednesday, as the prime minister reached out to Indigenous and ethnic minority community leaders in an effort to contain a significant community backlash.



The government confirmed on Tuesday it would attempt to remove the words offend, insult and humiliate from section 18C of the RDA and insert the word “harass” – a move that weakens the existing protections against race hate speech.

While the controversial proposal appears certain to be blocked in the Senate, with the Nick Xenophon Team signalling opposition to changing the wording in the legislation, groups representing Indigenous Australians and a wide range of ethnic minorities have responded furiously, telling Guardian Australia the changes will validate and fuel racism against their communities.

In the lead-up to Tuesday’s decision, and during a debate in the Coalition party room meeting, a number of moderate Liberal MPs defending marginal seats 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.

Concetta Fierravanti-Wells, the minister for international development and the Pacific, warned during Tuesday’s 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 ALP at the next election.

In an effort to contain the political damage from the decision to proceed on 18C, Turnbull made phone calls after question time to members of his Indigenous advisory group and to ethnic minority community leaders.

Guardian Australia understands the government made the in-principle decision to proceed with both legislative and process changes on 10 March, just before the sudden death of the cartoonist Bill Leak, whose work became emblematic in the controversy.

The cabinet on Monday night considered the bill the government intends to introduce to the Senate on Wednesday before taking that proposal to the Coalition party room for discussion and confirming its intentions publicly on Tuesday.

With Labor intent on pursuing parliamentary attacks against the proposal, and the activist group GetUp preparing a ground campaign against the changes, it is clear the government wants prompt consideration of the 18C proposal.

Indigenous, ethnic minority and faith groups are now turning their attention to the Senate, preparing for an intense lobbying effort to ensure, as the Ethnic Communities Council puts it, that “common sense prevails”.

Xenophon told Guardian Australia on Tuesday night the NXT would stand firm against any changes to 18C but would support changes to the processes administered by the AHRC to stop frivolous complaints going forward.

Unless Xenophon changes his mind, the government will lack the requisite parliamentary numbers to make the change.

The National Congress of Australia’s First Peoples described the government’s proposal as an embarrassment to the nation.

The congress co-chair, Rod Little, pledged to stand with ethnic minority groups to fight the reforms, as he did last time changes to 18C were floated under Tony Abbott’s leadership.

“I think the message this sends is that certain sections of privileged persons want further privilege to insult, be racist, or prejudiced to others who are generally defenceless,” Little said. “To me that is embarrassing for a nation that is supposedly built on principles of a fair go and equality.”

The Lebanese Muslim Association expressed dismay at the government’s position, saying it would “inflame racist attitudes” and “embolden their vilification and discrimination in a Trump-like manner”.

The association said the government failed to understand the extent of racism in Australian society.

“Our community continues to be the target of disparaging and disgusting attacks based on their background and this kind of announcement will only aggravate their current struggles,” a spokesman said. “We look to our government for leadership and strength in the face of discrimination, and not an ideological machine intent on stripping protection against hate in the name of a far-right ideal.

“The LMA hopes the Senate, especially the crossbenchers, will understand the mistake the government has made in kowtowing to racists and bigots, and stand up against the normalisation of hate.”

The Ethnic Communities Council said the cabinet’s position was incongruous with the government’s statement in support of multiculturalism on Monday.

The council’s Western Australian president, Ramdas Sankaran, said the reforms were supported largely by Anglo-Saxon males, who had no ability to understand what it was like to experience discrimination.

“In Australia, across whatever sector you’re talking about, disability, aged care, Indigenous – they all talk about the importance of lived experience in terms of decision-making,” Sankaran said.

“The vast majority of people involved in this are white Anglo-Saxon males who have been the largest perpetrators of racism in this country.

“They don’t realise how difficult it is particularly when you’re from a new and emerging community.

“To be spat at and that is what is happening … and these guys want to give more licence to them. It’s absolute nonsense.”

The Chinese Australian Forum has been campaigning against the changes for years and campaigned against Pauline Hanson when she was first elected in 1996.

The forum’s president, Kenrick Cheah, said Turnbull’s announcement on Tuesday sent a clear message to the community.

“You’re letting children know that it’s OK to make fun and humiliate on the basis of people’s race and colour,” he said. “It’s preposterous as a society we should be moving away from that. Yet it’s 2017, with a PM who is supposed to be very moderate, and we’re actually trying to change laws to make it easier for racists to hurt people.”

Most organisations welcomed the clarification of the Australian Human Rights Commission’s complaints handling process. That included the Australia/Israel and Jewish Affairs Council, who said the changes would help reduce procedural inequities

But the council’s executive director, Colin Rubenstein, said he remain opposed to any change to 18C.

“We certainly see no justification for changing 18C which we believed has worked well,” Rubenstein said. “The truth is that it would unleash another bout of litigation to work out what the new terms mean.”

Asked whether the council would now lobby senators against the changes, Rubenstein said: “We have been heavily involved in the debate all along, our views are well known. And I’m sure when called by people like you we’ll continue to put our views.”

