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Is your right to offend greater than someone else’s right not to be racially vilified?

For over 20 years Australia has had a law that makes it illegal to offend, insult, humiliate or intimidate someone because of their race.

‘Just Words’, a 2SER investigative podcast, asked an expert panel to dissect the 18C Inquiry report that was tabled in Parliament on Tuesday February 28th.

Our expert panel was hosted by Nic Healey and includes:

Professor Adrienne Stone – Chair at Melbourne Law School, Melbourne University

Simon Breheny – Director of Policy at the Institute of Public Affairs.

Dr. Linda Tucker – Employment and Discrimination Solicitor for Redfern Legal Centre.

The Committee made 22 recommendations, but they stopped short of calling to axe section 18C, instead putting forward a ‘shopping list’ of options ranging from leaving the section unchanged to replacing the words “offend”, “insult” and “humiliate” with the word “harass”.

This puts Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull in a difficult position as it will now be up to him to decide whether to make any change to the law.