Arabic version: نيو ساوث ويلز ترفض توسيع الحماية من خطاب الكراهية
According to ABC News, the Minns government has rejected a key recommendation to expand New South Wales criminal hate speech laws beyond race. The decision means inciting hatred based on sexual orientation, disability, gender identity, religion and other characteristics will not be made illegal under the Crimes Act, while inciting racial hatred remains a criminal offence.
Attorney-General Michael Daley said the government had decided not to extend the existing offence of inciting racial hatred to additional protected attributes. He said the government considered that an expansion raised “complex questions” concerning freedom of expression, freedom of religion and the consistent application of criminal law across the community.
The government released a review by former Supreme Court judge John Sackar KC, completed in November last year, alongside its response. Sackar had been asked to assess whether hate speech protections should extend to other vulnerable groups. His report recommended aligning the groups protected against incitement to violence with those protected against incitement to hatred, saying the inconsistency was detrimental to social cohesion and could create a “hierarchical, two-tier model of protection”.
The review also recommended adding disability as a protected attribute for both incitement to hatred and incitement to violence, as well as improving reporting and education on hate-based conduct and providing specialised police training. The government said it would continue to consider the remaining recommendations. Daley said policy would also be guided by a NSW Law Reform Commission review of anti-discrimination laws and recommendations from the royal commission into antisemitism.
Greens MP Amanda Cohn criticised the government over what she described as “months of secrecy” surrounding the report. She said marginalised groups were facing “worsening hatred and division” and noted that more than half the recommendations did not require legislative change. Upper house MPs had repeatedly sought the report’s release, while Labor had argued it was a cabinet document.
