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No Andrew, it is not the responsibility of the LGBT community to help you hang on to your 1950s ideal of marriage
By Paula Gerber As a long time supporter of marriage equality and the rights of LGBT people, I generally find my views are diametrically opposed to those of conservative commentator Andrew Bolt. Imagine my surprise then to find Bolt citing my work to support his argument that the gay community must now adopt a conservative…
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Rights to bigotry and green lights to hate
By Sarah Joseph, Monash University AAP/Stefan Postles Poor George Brandis. Our Attorney-General seems to have wedged himself on the issue of racial vilification. Soon after the election of the Abbott government, Senator Brandis defiantly declared that repeal of Section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act would be his first task as Australia’s first law officer.…
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Tim Wilson, the Australian Human Rights Commission, and “balancing” human rights
by Sarah Joseph (this post was originally published by The Drum on 19 December) Tim Wilson, former policy director for right-wing think-tank the Institute of Public Affairs (IPA), has been appointed as the human rights commissioner. His remit will be in the area of “freedom”, focusing particularly on freedom of speech. Attorney-General George Brandis explained…
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Andrew Bolt, Free Speech, and Racial Intolerance
by Sarah Joseph In Eatock v Bolt, decided on September 28, the (in)famous conservative columnist and commentator Andrew Bolt was found to have breached the Racial Discrimination Act 1975 (Cth) (the “RDA”) in writing two particular articles published in 2009, “It’s so hip to be black” and “White fellas in the black”. In the articles,…
Castan Centre for Human Rights Law 