Liberal senator Cory Bernardi plans to introduce a private bill this week to remove the words "insult" and "offend" from a contentious section of the Racial Discrimination Act aimed at making racial hate speech unlawful.
Section 18C makes it illegal to "offend, insult, humiliate or intimidate" someone because of their race or ethnicity.
Nationals senator Barry O'Sullivan believes there are about 18 or 19 coalition backbenchers who will vote for the change.
"We will just see what happens with it," he told reporters in Canberra today ahead of the new parliament being proclaimed.
"I think today will be a bit of a turbulent day one way or another."
Liberal colleague Chris Back insists words such as "intimidate" and "vilify" should remain, but the others should be removed.
"You could say anything to me, you could say 'I hate the West Coast Eagles' and I might be offended or insulted by that but you have the right to say that," he said.
Senator Back said it was an important issue which has been around a long time, but accepted budget repair was a higher priority.
Liberal Democrat David Leyonhjelm, who has also been pushing for the change along with fellow crossbenchers Bob Day and Derry Hinch, does not think there is any chance of success in the short term.
