Time to hit racial abuse for six

But the federal Attorney-General, Senator George Brandis, pledged during the election that he would amend or repeal Section 18C because, in his view, it violates freedom of speech. He regards racially motivated attacks as part and parcel of the "intellectual freedom" Australians expect – despite there already being broad exemptions under Section 18D from current laws where people make infringing statements in good faith.

The case Senator Brandis most often refers to when promoting his changes is that of columnist Andrew Bolt. In that case, Mr Bolt's comments were found to not have been made in good faith-particularly that he knowingly published errors of fact and distortions of the truth. If he had a sincere intellectual point to make, it would have avoided infringement of 18C.

If the Attorney-General were to engage in genuine community consultation, he would realise how important these laws are to communities.

At least 150 organisations across the country have expressed their alarm over threatened changes to racial vilification laws that are being proposed by the Abbott government.

We should not accept the excuse that racially motivated vilification is an ordinary and acceptable part of living in a democracy. Behaviour that isn't acceptable in sport certainly shouldn't be acceptable in everyday life.

If we are to build a society where people of different racial and ethnic backgrounds feel able to fully participate, and where people can live, work and play side-by-side, we also need a code of conduct against racially motivated abuse. We need to defend Section 18C.