Race laws need toughening: Triggs

Human Rights Commission president Gillian Triggs says racial discrimination laws should be strengthened, not watered down.

Professor Triggs gave evidence on Monday to a parliamentary human rights committee hearing into freedom of speech.

There is a push among some coalition MPs and crossbench senators to remove the words "offend" and "insult" from the Racial Discrimination Act's section 18C.

Professor Triggs said only 3.8 per cent of complaints to the commission related to section 18C and fewer than four case every year proceeded to court.

"To weaken section 18C in any way would be a seriously retrograde step - if anything it should be strengthened," she said.

However, she said the drafting of any wording was a matter for government.

Most complaints to the commission had nothing to do with racial or verbal abuse, she said, and any law changes would have "severe and unintended consequences" for other forms of complaint.

The section struck an appropriate balance between freedom of speech and freedom from racial abuse, she said.