The Coalition's plan to water down race hate laws has been rejected by a marked majority of respondents to a government review.
More than 76 per cent of 4100 submissions to Attorney-General George Brandis' draft changes to the Racial Discrimination Act were opposed to the proposal - known as the ''Bolt law'' after conservative columnist Andrew Bolt.
The government has proposed to wind back section 18C, which makes it unlawful to offend, insult, humiliate or intimidate someone based on their race or ethnicity.
But just 20.5 per cent of submissions were in favour of the changes, according to documents obtained under freedom of information laws by Simon Rice of the Australian National University. Three per cent called for a complete repeal of all racial discrimination protections.
Senator Brandis' department declined an FOI request by Fairfax Media for access to the submissions.
Professor Rice said his successful request for the first time revealed the extent of public opposition. All the major ethnic groups in Australia have registered their opposition to the changes. "These figures provide further confirmation of the deep community opposition to the changes," he said.
Hugh de Kretser, executive director of the Human Rights Law Centre, said the existing Racial Discrimination Act had been ''working well for many years''.
It is understood that Senator Brandis is pushing ahead with changes but is working on a compromise wording for 18C.
