From Domainfax:
Liberal senator Cory Bernardi has the backing of nearly every government backbench senator to re-write section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act, but denies the move is a direct challenge to Malcolm Turnbull’s authority.
The libertarian South Australian senator has kick-started the push to force changes to Section 18C, which makes it an offence to “offend, insult, humiliate or intimidate” a person.
The issue is a rallying point for conservative and libertarian senators and 20 senators have signed the petition. In total, 13 government senators and 7 crossbenchers have signed the motion.
The Chief Loon needs 39 signatures to pass the bill. This appears to be generally about Loonism rather than undermining Turnbull specifically given Tony Abbott had already abandoned the reform when he was PM.
That is, unless the Chief Loon has designs upon the top job himself.