Race laws: 'you win some, you lose some,' George Brandis admits

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/06/race-backdown-you-win-some-you-lose-some-brandis

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The attorney general, George Brandis, has said he accepts Tony Abbott’s decision to dump his proposed changes to racial discrimination laws, saying “you win a few, you lose a few”.

The prime minister announced he had taken a “leader’s call” after a cabinet discussion on Tuesday, arguing the proposed amendments to the Racial Discrimination Act were an obstacle to “national unity” at a time when the government needed community support for major counter-terrorism law changes.

Labor welcomed the backdown but said it was “humiliating” for Brandis who had defended the planned removal of provisions against offending, insulting or humiliating people on the basis of race as late as Monday.

Brandis was asked during a Sky News interview on Wednesday whether he had been rolled on the push to amend section 18C.

“Well you know what this business is like … you win a few, you lose a few,” Brandis said.

“But at the end of the day, as the prime minister himself said, he made a leader’s call. One of the observations that a number of commentators have been making about our government is they’ve said ‘your agenda is too cluttered, you’re fighting on too many fronts’.

“Now, our biggest task at the moment is to get the budget under control and that means getting the budget through the Senate. There are other important agenda items as well.”

Brandis added: “I can understand the prime minister’s view, and I accept the prime minister’s view, that the government needs to focus on a smaller number of core priorities and that was the reason for his decision.”

The deputy Labor leader, Tanya Plibersek, said the government had tried to go “too far when it comes to allowing bigots the right to be bigots”.

“George Brandis has been put back in his box on this one,” she said.

“It doesn’t fill me with a lot of confidence that we have an attorney general at odds with the prime minister on some of these most critical pieces of legislation.”

In a radio interview on Wednesday, Abbott acknowledged the Coalition had made an election commitment to amend the Racial Discrimination Act – a point that prompted the Institute of Public Affairs to complain of a broken promise on “free speech”.

“Well it was certainly one of the commitments that we made pre-election, but the circumstances have somewhat changed and sometimes one priority has to give way to a greater priority and the anti-terrorist campaign, the need for stronger counter-terrorism measures, is really absolutely critical right now,” Abbott told the ABC.

“Let me assure your listeners, let me assure you, we are a government that takes its commitments absolutely seriously. But in the case of Section 18C, one commitment that we gave was running into the rocks given another very, very important commitment that we have and that is to keep our country safe.”

Liberal MPs also welcomed the prime minister’s decision, which came after the government received thousands of submissions on the exposure draft of its legislation. Community groups and individuals raised concerns about the message the changes would send to people about racism.

Concetta Fierravanti-Wells, the parliamentary secretary to the minister for social services, said she was pleased the prime minister had decided not to pursue the changes as it had become clear “from the outset that this was a matter of concern to quite a number of communities”.

The first Indigenous woman elected to federal parliament, Nova Peris, said the government’s proposal had “caused a lot of unnecessary stir and upset across the Australian community”.

She congratulated Indigenous Liberal MP Ken Wyatt for indicating on Monday night that he would consider crossing the floor if the changes to the Racial Discrimination Act went ahead.

Under section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act, it is unlawful to publicly “offend, insult, humiliate or intimidate another person or a group of people” on the basis of their race, colour or national or ethnic origin.

The government’s proposed changes would have removed offend, insult and humiliate from the provisions, added a new measure about vilification, and expanded the exemptions.