The artistic speech exemption in Australian racial discrimination regulation

This article considers the exemption in s 18D of the Australian Racial Discrimination Act 1975 (Cth) in the context of artistic speech. Section 18D exempts racially motivated and offensive speech which would otherwise contravene s 18C of that Act as prohibited racist speech Artistic expression therefore occupies a privileged place in Australian racist speech regulation. This article is the first to explore the rationale for the artistic exemption, and to comprehensively consider its meaning, scope and contours. These issues are examined with reference to a number of cases. While the discussion is limited to the Australian Racial Discrimination Act, the observations will have relevance in many other jurisdictions containing similar exemptions.