Malcolm Turnbull faces a serious split in his own party as a number of Liberal Senators bucked the party line to back a Bill to water down section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act, a proposal supposedly abandoned by the Coalition Government last year.  

Speaking in the Senate today, Liberal Senators, Ian MacDonald, Zed Seselja and Chris Back endorsed Senator Bob Day’s attack on the race hate speech protections in the Act.

This is a failure of leadership by Malcolm Turnbull, who has refused to make his Government’s position clear and pull the right wing of his party into line.

Despite the Liberal Party’s ideological obsession, communities around Australia have made their views clear. Section 18C has served Australians well for almost 20 years and should not be watered down.

Continued Liberal support for this divisive Bill defies Malcolm Turnbull’s commitment to adopting more inclusive Government rhetoric.  

At a time when recent findings from the Scanlon Foundation reveal worrying trends in our migrant communities - including increased levels of discrimination and a reduced sense of belonging – it is very disappointing Malcolm Turnbull has failed to pull his Senator’s into line on maintaining our race hate speech protections.  

THURSDAY, 15 OCTOBER 2015