Racism, Revenge Porn & Nauru

Panellists: Mitch Fifield, Minister for Communications; Catherine King, Shadow Health Minister; Corinne Grant, Comedian & Writer; Brendan O'Neill, Editor, spiked magazine; and Erin Watson-Lynn, Academic and entrepreneur. Questions: RACE & 18C ANNABETH SIMPSON asked: Brendan O’ Neill: You wrote that you want section 18C torn up because you “trust Australians to use their unshackled reason to separate the good ideas from the wicked ones”. Growing up as a person of colour in Australia, I know that racial abuse is not an uncommon experience. In fact, despite being a respected pharmacist in his community for 16 years, my father is racially vilified on a regular basis. Do you think the removal or changes to 18C that may give people more social license to racially discriminate is appropriate? QUT &18C BRADLEY HARVEY asked: This week, our Prime Minister and Treasurer have essentially said that they’re too busy to address concerns about the 18C law and the financial costs and reputational damage being incurred by three university students in Queensland. If free speech has become such a low priority for the Liberal Party, is it time for libertarian and conservative minded voters to find a new party to represent their views? REVENGE PORN KATELYN DUNN asked: Recently news broke of an online pornography ring targeting young women and girls from 74 Australian high schools. The ring trades sexually explicit images, all shared without consent, and some depicting unwitting victims as young as 14. Users of the website encourage each other to “go get em boys”, and also share the personal and private details of how to find these girls. Despite this, a statement from Queensland Police placed responsibility squarely at the feet of the underage victims and their parents, and claimed that initial investigations found that there were no clear acts of child exploitation. My question is to the panel - in an era of revenge porn and online sharing, do you believe it