Senator BRANDIS (Queensland—Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate, Vice-President of the Executive Council, Minister for Arts and Attorney-General) (14:15): I should correct what seems to be a misconception on Senator Di Natale's part. The exposure draft that I released this morning does not propose any changes at all to the machinery provisions of the Racial Discrimination Act—or of the Human Rights Act, for that matter. What the exposure draft does is honour an election promise the government made to repeal section 18C in its current form and replace it with provisions which are (a) more respectful of freedom of speech, including the freedom of speech of unreasonable and intolerant people like you, Senator Di Natale, and (b)— Opposition senators interjecting— The PRESIDENT: Order! Senator Di Natale is entitled to hear the answer. Senator BRANDIS: Through you, Mr President, I say to Senator Di Natale that there are many on my side of politics who find his views intolerant and preposterous. But we would not for a moment suggest that he should not be at liberty to express them. The second thing we intend to do, Senator Di Natale, is to introduce into Commonwealth law, for the very first time ever, a prohibition on racial vilification. The mechanism that was adopted in 1995 by a previous Labor government to deal with the problem was, through section 18C, the political censorship method. That is never the way to deal with a social problem—to ban people from expressing their views. The way to deal with a social problem is to ensure that we have, as in this case, appropriately framed legislation which is respectful of freedom of speech but targets the very problem at issue.