In a high-profile and controversial case, journalist and broadcaster Andrew Bolt faced court over comments made regarding Indigenous Australians and those claiming Indigenous ancestry under the 18C provisions of the Racial Discrimination Act, which makes it a crime to cause offence.
Many Australian conservative voters had expected Abbott’s Liberal National Party to reform the legislation upon taking office, only to be disappointed when Abbott chose to drop plans to amend in claiming it was more important to keep the islamic community in Australia on side.
The prime minister welcomed the approach of some islamic community figures including Keysar Trad, who was pictured in today’s The Australian holding up the French satirical magazine’s most recent front page in a show of support for free speech.
Abbott stressed he “absolutely” believed in the core value of freedom of speech but did call on Australians to make use of that right in a judicious manner.
“I don’t think people should engage in casual insults, but nevertheless… accept that in the course of having a robust democracy a lot of people will be offended, a lot of people will be insulted,” he added.
“You know the really encouraging thing, if we can draw any encouragement out of the recent tragedies in Sydney and in Paris, is that more and more muslim people seem to be saying ‘look, there is a value in diversity, we do have to adopt the position of live and let live’,” he concluded.
