Former Prime Minister Tony Abbott has declared he supports Australia’s controversial “hate speech” laws, even though they are stricter than those he once vowed to get rid of to safeguard freedom of speech.
Mr Abbott, who brought hundreds of thousands of immigrants into the country as PM and set up a vote for homosexual “marriage”, promised before the 2013 election to repeal Section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act, which makes it makes it unlawful to “offend, insult, humiliate or intimidate” on the basis of race.
But in an interview for conservative think tank the Institute of Public Affairs (IPA) late last month Mr Abbott said he now backs the country’s current “hate speech” laws, which were added to federally by then-Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus in 2023 and tightened last year, and multiple times at state level.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, NSW Premier Chris Minns and Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan will all attempt to pass even more “hate speech” legislation when federal and state parliaments resume, in response to the Bondi Islamic terrorist attack.
Former Prime Minister Tony Abbott says he now supports Australia’s “hate speech” laws, but wants them enforced equally.
He once promised to get rid of the laws, which have since been strengthened multiple times and are about to become even stricter.
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IPA Deputy Executive Director Daniel Wild asked Mr Abbott what he thought of Mr Minns’ “so-called anti-hate speech laws”, calling them a “cop out” and saying “you cannot legislate away hate”.
Mr Abbott responded by saying “I agree with you, we don’t need more laws against hate speech”, but went on to say “we need the existing laws enforced” and complaining only about a double standard in enforcement.
“If you or I say something which is offensive to Muslims, for instance, we’re likely to be in all sorts of trouble, but radical Islamists can say what they like in terms of globalising the Intifada, murdering the IDF, ‘f- the Jews’, ‘gas the Jews’ etc. and nothing happens,” he said.
“So I think there’s nothing wrong with the laws as they stand, they just need to be enforced equally, as opposed to partially.”
In a speech to the IPA in the lead-up to the 2013 election Mr Abbott promised to “repeal section 18C in its current form”, said offensive speech “should never be unlawful” and that a “hurt feelings test” was impossible to apply.
He also insisted that “any prohibitions on inciting hatred against or intimidation of particular racial groups should be akin to the ancient common law offences of incitement and causing fear”, and declared that the Liberal Party was the “freedom party”.
But 18 months later he scrapped the planned changes after lobbying from minority ethnic groups, a move welcomed by Executive Council of Australian Jewry executive director Peter Wertheim and Anti-Defamation Commission boss Dr Dvir Abramovich, AJN reported at the time.
Mr Dreyfus, who is Jewish himself, praised the Jewish community for its role is forcing Mr Abbott into a “humiliating backdown”.
“I congratulate the leadership of the Jewish community, as I have congratulated community groups across Australia. Leadership in the Jewish community was vital in this campaign,” Mr Dreyfus said.
In 2016 Mr Abbott again signalled his opposition to 18C, calling it a “troubling law” and criticising former prime minister John Howard for opposing its introduction but not repealing it while in government.
“The decency and fair-mindedness of the Australian people will always be a better defence against hate speech than a law administered by ideological partisans – yet our parliament prefers to tolerate over-the-top prosecutions than to upset thin-skinned activists,” he said.
Header image: Tony Abbott during the IPA interview (IPA)
