Govt has no plans to change race laws

New South Wales Senator David Leyonhjelm wants to test the law on whether the description, angry white male, is a racist insult.

Senator Leyonhjelm insists he is not offended by the term but is lodging the complaint to protest the laws he says curtail free speech.

While he says he’s not offended to be called that, he is taking a complaint to the Human Rights Commission under section 18c of the Racial Discrimination Act which makes it illegal to “offend, insult, humiliate or intimidate” someone due to their race or ethnicity.

The senator insists he is not offended but his complaint is meant to demonstrate that “this particular law is absurd”.

Newspaper columnist Mark Kenny made the “angry white male” comments in an article that also labelled Mr Leyonhjelm a “boorish, supercilious know-all with the empathy of a besser block”.

Under this section, it states it is unlawful to commit an act which would reasonably offend or insult someone due to their race, colour, national or ethnic origin.

“Under the Act, Mr Kenny’s article is unlawful because his article was reasonably likely, in all the circumstances, to offend, insult, humiliate or intimidate another person or a group of people on the basis of their colour”, he said in a statement.

“I don’t believe feelings should be the subject of the law at all”.

The law has become a bit of a sticking point for conservatives, with a rogues gallery of politicians including Leyonhjelm, Corey Bernadi, Family First’s Bob Day and former PM Tony Abbott having all campaigned for its repeal.

Earlier this week, the Western Australian Liberal Party called for the Federal Government to remove the words “offend” and “insult” from the act.