You have the right to be a bigot (but for how long?)

Our Attorney-General George Brandis once famously stated that in Australia “you have the right to be a bigot”. This was unsurprisingly followed by a wave of hyperventilating and bed wetting from the many opponents of the government – mostly those to my left, Mr Speaker.

What was surprising was that no-one in the legal profession backed the poor man up. No lawyers, no judges, police prosecutors or academics wanted to be seen defending the not so popular Attorney General nor those god-awful bigots. And as George was responding to a question from an aboriginal MP regarding the Racial Discrimination Act – no one wanted to be caught in the headlights on the wrong side of that rabbit proof fence either.

Subsequently George missed the opportunity to educate the public in a simple but pretty damn important legal issue, and the definition of the word bigot - a person who is intolerant towards those holding different opinions.

So I guess it's up to me – Mr Better late than Never.

In Australia we have no specific constitutional rights. Instead we have the British system known as the rule of law. Rights tell you what you can do, laws tell you what you can't.

You have only one thing that can be considered a right - the right to do whatever is not prohibited by law. As there is no law in Australia which makes it unlawful for you to be intolerant towards those holding different opinions – you have the right to be a bigot.

You also have the right to be a dickhead, a loudmouth, a bogan, a slut. You have the right to wear your undies on your head and dance like a duck. You have the right to be a humanist, a philanthropist, an Islamist or fascist. A heterophobe, a technophobe, a baritone or garden gnome.

You are free to be anything and do anything you want until some twit makes a law that prohibits it. You don't have to stand up for George or the government, you don't have to defend bigotry or any other common human behaviour, but if you understand where your freedom comes from you will know how to best defend it.

Remember you are free - and never mind the bollocks.