No Free Speech For Aussie “Racists”

Senators of the Left last night banned reforms to the Racial Discrimination Act that has been used to punish critics of the new tribalism:

At 10.30pm last night, in the face of a veto from Labor, the Greens and the Nick Xenophon Team, the government dropped its plan to change section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act, which makes it an offence to insult, ­offend, ­humiliate or intimidate people ­because of their race. It failed in its attempt to create the new offence of “harass” as well as its plan for a new “pub test” meant to set a wider standard for complaints.

Now Sydney’s Anglican Archbishop, Glenn Davies, warns that the Left and the new tribes it protects is meanwhile persecuting Christians – the faith that has traditionally stands against totalitarians and tribalists:

There is only one upside from the recent attacks and unprecedented abuse directed at an academic and the directors of Christian organisations: people are beginning to wake up and take notice. They are starting to understand that the campaign for same-sex marriage is not sailing on a raft of rainbows but on a barge of bullies.

Last week there was the IBM executive whose position was questioned because he was a ­director of the Lachlan Macquarie Institute…

What kind of diversity is so monochrome that it does not allow differing expressions of opinion in the debate?

Not only has this minority view tried to swamp the public debate with its introspective, ­authoritarian denial of free speech, it has struck at the heart of Australian democracy and the freedoms that we all cherish…

I was one of the Christian leaders who convened a meeting of church leaders in Sydney last year, to be held at the Mercure Hotel. No sooner had we set the venue than staff were subjected to an ugly campaign of harassment and threats.

For the safety of staff and guests, the hotel cancelled the booking…

Catholic Archbishop of Hobart Julian Porteous was taken to the brink in Tasmania’s Anti-Discrimination Tribunal for espousing views on marriage that accord with Australian law, let alone being the view of his church, as well as all churches and that which civilisations have held for millennia. The avant-garde opponents of these time-honoured mores had hoped to silence him.

What kind of a society calls someone before a tribunal because they are defending the law of the land? What kind of state legislation allows such a travesty of justice to occur? Has our society been that deprived of common sense and love of freedom that a carefully ­articulated defence of commonwealth legislation can be deemed offensive merely because someone wants the law changed and is offended because their views are at odds with the current law?…

In what kind of “diversity” do we as Australians really believe? I want to live in a land that respects the individual, that allows freedom of expression and freedom of faith. I want to be able to be free to convince my fellow Australians that Jesus Christ is Lord of all creation and that true freedom is only to be found in him. I also want to live in a land where others can contradict my views and espouse their own beliefs without fear of persecution or intimidation. That is true diversity. That is true freedom of speech and freedom of religion of which we ought to be justly proud and that I would happily defend with my life.

Here is a for-instance. Gay rights activist Michael Barnett has told Macquarie University it was a “bad look” to hire history and politics academic Steve Chavura, also a member of the Lachlan Macquarie Institute, a training organisation established by the Australian Christian Lobby.

Here is Chavura: