Australia is in the process of revoking a law which makes it a criminal act to offend somebody of a different race.
Politicians Down Under are planning to rewrite the country’s Racial Discrimination Act to raise the threshold for legal action beyond being offended.
Advocates of the change claim the current standard is too low, strangles free speech and leads to frivolous charges.
At present, section 18c of the of the Racial Discrimination Act says it is unlawful to “offend, insult, humiliate or intimidate” somebody because of their race.
Breaking this section of the act is not necessarily a criminal offence, but can lead to fines in excess of $40,000 (US dollars).
Lawmakers, including prime minister Malcolm Turnbull (pictured above), want to replace the wording with “harass and intimidate”, strengthening the criteria.
They also want the criteria for judging harassment or intimidation to be changed from the the perspective of a “reasonable member of the relevant group” to “the reasonable member of the Australian community”.
According to the Guardian, Turnbull said the current law had “lost its credibility” and needed to change.
In comments reported by Daily Mail Australia, Turnbull argued that the changes would do a better job of protecting minority groups because it is clearer about what is and what is not a matter for the courts.
He said: “We are strengthening the race-hate laws. They are clearer and they clearly express the type of conduct that should be prohibited, not mere slights or the taking of offence or hurt feelings.”
In order to change the law, the government will to get new legislation past its senate and house of representatives – which could prove a struggle given the outrage the proposal has prompted from opposition politicians.
