The Senate was meant to be debating the Federal Government's proposal to change the wording of section 18C in the Racial Discrimination Act.
The law currently makes it illegal to offend, insult, humiliate or intimidate people on the basis of their race or ethnicity.
The Government, citing defence of free speech, is proposing, instead, to remove the words insult, offend and humiliate and replace them with harass.
But One Nation senator Malcolm Roberts said last night the debate is not just about free speech but, also, the freedom to report crimes committed by Muslims.
"Because of laws like the Racial Discrimination Act, ordinary, decent people are simply afraid to speak the truth, because the truth can get you arrested, fined or even jailed. So if your Muslim Sudanese neighbour is engaging in female genital mutilation, or your Syrian Muslim cafe owner is a terrorist building a bomb, or maybe just the Afghan Muslims in the public-housing flat next to you are molesting small children, chances are that you are afraid to speak out."
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Labor senator Sam Dastyari has lashed out at Senator Roberts' remarks, saying they are hurtful and show he is using the argument for free speech as an excuse for racism.
"Malcolm Roberts' comments in the Senate yesterday were about grabbing a headline and causing controversy. To stand in the Australian Senate and allege that people won't report incidences of rape and incest in their neighbourhoods out of fear of being deemed racist is just mad, out of touch with reality, and, frankly, is doing no service to the Australian debate."
Senator Dastyari says, while One Nation is making increasingly controversial anti-Islamic remarks, the Government must take some of the blame for starting a debate on the race-hate laws.
"What we've had now as a nation is a debate over several weeks about how much more racist we should be as a society, and I think it's going to -- and was always going to -- lead down some very dark and dangerous paths. What we see from Senator Roberts is the tip of the iceberg of the type of language and rhetoric that is now out there in the community. And, frankly, the Government has to hold some responsibility for creating a debate about racism that we didn't need and don't want."
Leaders within the Muslim communities are also expressing concern about the direction of the political debate.
Islamic Council of Victoria vice president Adel Salman says it is extremely concerning that comments once considered on the political fringe are now in the mainstream.
"The dial keeps moving towards more and more extreme and outrageous speech. Where's it going to stop? I mean, what do these people hope to achieve? Certainly, I don't think their intentions are good. I think what it is achieving is more division and greater levels of hostility and harassment, misunderstanding, intolerance, and these are all the things that, really, Australians should be most alarmed about."
After One Nation's Pauline Hanson called for banning Muslims following the attack on Westminster in London a week ago, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull condemned her comments.
But Australian Muslim Women's Centre for Human Rights chairwoman Tasneem Chopra says Australia's leaders must react more strongly overall to anti-Islamic comments.
"When you don't hear that strong counter-response, you're basically seeing conservatives and racists commit open slather* with impunity, and that makes you really doubt the integrity of democracy, which is meant to protect its most vulnerable and not expose them and throw them under the bus."
