Publisher Ita Buttrose has a point when she says, “We have become so politically correct that we’ve become a nation of bores. The majority of us have been silenced by the frowns of the loud-mouthed minority groups.”
The germ of her argument was not that people should be encouraged to engage in rampant racist or sexist tirades. Rather she was pointing out that major business figures and some politicians were afraid to engage in any public discussion at all for fear of causing offence. Large areas of debate were beyond discussion by many people: multiculturalism; Aboriginal policy; environment; and women’s issues. The extent to which this is true can be debated. There is certainly no shortage of rednecks, but that is not the point. It would be a poor day for Australia if we became, as Ms Buttrose says, a nation of wimps when it comes to speaking out. The response to people who say things we disagree with is not to be offended and to ostracise the speaker, but to engage in further debate.