Given the large number of changes proposed by the Albanese government’s hate speech bill, it’s not easy to decide which is the most significant. However, Australia’s first ever national criminal offence of inciting racial hatred is certainly a contender.
As others have noted, criminal law-making on this scale should not be undertaken in a rush and without calm and fulsome consultation. However, the government seems determined to move swiftly on this in response to growing pressure in the wake of the Bondi terror attack.
It is significant this bill proposes to criminalise the incitement of racial hatred. For more than 30 years, the Australian consensus has been that racist hate speech (and other forms of hate speech) is most appropriately regulated primarily through civil laws such as section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act. Criminal law has been reserved for hate speech that urges or threatens violence.
