Senator George Brandis QC, infamous for proclaiming that people had the ‘‘right to be a bigot’’ in his drive to wind back section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act has been “rolled” and “humiliated” according to Opposition Leader Bill Shorten after the Coalition’s “embarrassing backdown” on the the controversial bill.

Before last year’s election, the Coalition had promised to repeal section 18C, which became known as the "Bolt laws" after News Corp columnist Andrew Bolt was prosecuted under the existing legislation for two comment piece on white-skinned Aboriginals.

Section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act makes it unlawful to: "offend, insult, humiliate or intimidate another person or a group of people" because of their race or ethnicity".

Senator Brandis', (the Attorney-General) draft bill proposed a new section that would make it: "unlawful for a person to do an act ... that is reasonably likely to vilify another person or a group of persons or intimidate another person or group of persons".

The proposed law would have removed protections against offending, insulting or humiliating someone.

However, yesterday Prime Minister Abbot said he had to make a ‘leadership call” and abandon the changes sought by Senator Brandis.

The ABC reports that the, Federal Government has taken contentious changes to racial discrimination laws "off the table" to protect national "unity", whilst moving to toughen the nation's security laws to combat home-grown terrorism.

Mr Abbott said he was dumping Senator Brandis's draft laws, which would have removed key sections of the Racial Discrimination Act which the Attorney-General said made it illegal to "hurt the feelings of others".

The PM said he had made a "leadership call" to abandon the changes, because they had become a "complication" in the Government's relationship with the Australian Muslim community. "When it comes to counter-terrorism, everyone needs to be part of Team Australia," Mr Abbott said."The Government's proposals to change 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act have become a complication in that respect.

"I don't want to do anything that puts our national unity at risk at this time and so those proposals are now off the table. It is, if you like, a leadership call that I have made after discussion with the Cabinet today. In the end, leadership is about preserving national unity on the essentials and that is why I have taken this decision," said Mr Abbot.