Many human rights activists and in particular some racial, ethnic and religious minority groups have engaged into a political fight to stop the Federal Attorney-General George Brandis stated intention to repeal, or significantly weaken, section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act. There is even a public petition circulated to important opinion makers to condemn the proposal.

I have serious reservations about it. First we\ are yet to see the proposed legislative changes and above all the treatment of Andrew Bolt under the current provisions was at least, in my view, problematic.

One of the characteristics of freedom of speech is that it sometimes hurts people’s feelings. This is balanced by the benefits to the society of having free speech. Universities should be bastions of free speech, in my view. Without it humanity would not have Copernicus theory as it badly undermined the feelings of Catholics when it was published.

I am for free speech, even if sometimes it hurts.