A new bid to stamp out hate speech would impose criminal penalties on people who promote hatred over race, religion, gender and other factors in a crossbench move challenging Labor and the Coalition to toughen the law. Source: The Age.
Independent MP Allegra Spender will put the proposal to Parliament today in a call on both major parties to strengthen draft laws that criminalise incitement to violence but do not ban serious vilification amid growing fears about anti-Semitism.
Ms Spender, whose eastern Sydney electorate of Wentworth has a large Jewish community, said the Government bill to tackle hate speech was too weak because it did not prevent clear cases of public speech that sought to provoke hatred, such as calls for a “final solution” against the Jews – echoing the language of the Holocaust.
Her amendment has gained support from the Executive Council of Australian Jewry and Equality Australia, an advocacy group for LGBTQ Australians, while also meeting some of the concerns set out by disability groups in their reaction to the draft law the Government unveiled in September.
If adopted, Ms Spender’s amendment would make it a criminal offence for a person to commit a public act with the intent to promote hatred towards another person or group.
Labor had initially promised to outlaw serious vilification, but dropped it from the draft government bill because Christian and Islamic groups, in particular, could not agree on a balance between free speech and protections for religious beliefs.
With the hate speech laws tipped to be debated in Parliament today, Ms Spender has put her amendment to both major parties in the hope they will join crossbench MPs in widening the scope of the draft laws.
The sanction on promoting hatred would apply to speech that targets a person’s race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, nationality, ethnic origin or political opinion.
The Coalition is yet to decide whether to support Labor’s hate speech laws and has not indicated a position on Ms Spender’s amendment, but has put forward its own amendment so the bill covers hate speech directed towards places of worship.
FULL STORY
Last-ditch push to beef up hate speech laws in wake of anti-Semitic attacks (By David Crowe, The Age)
