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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
National
Anne Twomey

Banning organisations has a sorry history – does Australia really want to go down this road again?

The Australian Communist party’s headquarters in George St, Sydney, circa 1950.
The Australian Communist party was outlawed multiple times by legislation – later struck down by the high court. Labor is proposing new hate laws following the Bondi terror attack. Photograph: Three Lions/Getty Images

Australia’s history of banning political groups gives pause for thought as to whether we really want to go down this route again.

During the first world war, the Unlawful Associations Act 1916 was enacted and used to ban a group called Industrial Workers of the World. Membership was made a criminal offence. Members could also be deported if they were not British subjects born in Australia.

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