Free speech advocates at odds with faith groups over NSW hate speech law overhaul

Heightened tensions over the Israel-Hamas war have led to a review of NSW’s hate speech law. Photograph: Dean Lewins/AAP

A move to overhaul the law criminalising hate speech in New South Wales following clashes across Sydney amid community tensions over the Israel-Hamas war has sparked debate over the limits of freedom of speech.

The NSW premier, Chris Minns, this week ordered a review of the 2018 law that made it a crime to threaten or incite violence based on race, religion, sexual orientation or gender identity, because to date crimes under the laws had never been successfully prosecuted.