WA Liberals vote to remove ‘insult’, ‘offend’ from section 18C ...
ABC News, 13/8/2016
The West Australia Liberal Party has voted in favour of a motion to remove the words "insult" and "offend" from the Racial Discrimination Act.
The original motion, put forward by chairman of the policy committee Sherry Sufi at the WA Liberal Party state conference on Saturday, called on the Federal Government to repeal section 18C from the act altogether.
Section 18C of the act makes it illegal to commit an act that is reasonably likely to "offend, insult, humiliate or intimidate" someone because of their race or ethnicity. After vigorous debate the party faithful voted in favour of removing the two words from section 18C, instead of repealing it altogether.
Motions passed at the state conference are not binding on the relevant parliamentary parties.
Former prime minister Tony Abbott reignited debate about repealing section 18C when he indicated his government should have pursued less ambitious reforms.
Liberal Democrat senator David Leyonhjelm plans to introduce a bill to change the laws and remove section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act.
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