South Australian Liberal Senator, Sean Edwards, has joined the conga line of Coalition MPs still pushing for protections against racist hate speech to be weakened.

In a strange rant in his online newsletter, Senator Edwards has backed the Federal Liberal Council’s motion advocating the removal of “insult” and “offend” from Section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act.

Senator Edwards then cites the waterfront dispute, the Occupy protests and the “global Islamist movement” amongst other things to justify watering down Section 18C.

Despite the Senator’s valiant attempts with these new and bizarre arguments that you really have to read to believe, communities around Australia have made their views clear. Section 18C has served Australians well for almost 20 years and should not be watered down.

Now, more than ever, we need community harmony – every politician has a responsibility to promote inclusion and respect.

The Coalition should join with Labor and rule out supporting the divisive and damaging proposed legislation currently before the Senate that seeks to weaken protections against racist hate speech.

Labor will fight any move to weaken protections against racist hate speech. The Abbott Government must rule out any support for changes to Section 18C and rebuke the divisiveness of comments such as that of Senator Edwards.

THURSDAY, 9 JULY 2015