Two white men have made a complaint to the Human Rights Commission alleging Federal Labor MP Linda Burney racially discriminated against white people in her criticism of a new inquiry into section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act.
Former Australian Liberty Alliance senate candidate Bernard Gaynor and cartoonist Paul Zanetti have lodged the complaint against Ms Burney, the first Indigenous woman elected to the lower house, for comments she made after Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull announced the inquiry.
"It astounds me that the people that are advocating for the removal of 18C are basically white men of a certain age that have never experienced racial discrimination in their life,” Ms Burney told reporters this week.
In a statement on his Blog, Mr Gaynor wrote: "These words are clearly racist and they make offensive and insulting connotations about white men. So I have lodged a complaint of racial vilification with the Australian Human Rights Commission. And I expect Gillian Triggs to take it seriously."
He goes on to claim "Linda Burney’s statement carries all sorts of other offensive and insulting connotations about white males".
"It blatantly advocates for the complete disregard of the political views held by white males. It even insinuates that white men are racist and for that reason oppose 18C."
Ms Burney responded on Twitter with a single word, "honestly", followed by a laughter emoji.
According to Mr Gaynor, discrimination based on race is something all white males have suffered.
"So all white men have experienced discrimination and similar discrimination is not hard to find in other government agencies, businesses, and in media reporting," he wrote.
