Due to Tony Abbott's failure to abolish Sec 18c of the Racial Discrimination 1975 (he promised to do it) the Federal Court has dismissed Pauline Hanson's appeal against the finding that she breached the Act for posting that Green Senator Faruqi should return to Pakistan after that person disparaged Queen Elizabeth at the time of HM's death.

Not for the first time, the insidious 18c has been criticised; this time by Dr. Andrew Bushnell, Director of the Law and Freedom Program at the IPA. He said that18c “places an illegitimate and unnecessary burden on political debate”.

18c has been used on multiple occasions to shut down debate and censor political opponents - while people like Faruqi can take advantage of the ability to badmouth and insult dead people, in this case no less than the non-political head of the Commonwealth for 70 years.

While the Federal Court might have applied 18c lawfully in a strict sense, by inserting itself into a dispute “between two sitting elected parliamentarians (it has) exposed the absurdity of this law”.

Faruqi has used the broad terms and “low threshold” of 18c to shut down a political opponent.

Bushnell believes that this affair and the use of 18c will have a “chilling effect” on contentious discussions like immigration. He believes that Senator Hanson should appeal the decision in the High Court, as it threatens the free speech of all Australians.