Parliament has passed tough new laws outlawing hate groups, increasing penalties for hate preachers, and creating new grounds for the government to cancel or deny visas following December’s Bondi beach terror attack.
After a tough political fight this week which led to a breakup of the Coalition, the government agreed to split its original bill into two, with new gun laws also passing parliament.
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Here’s everything you need to know about the hate laws bill, set to receive royal assent in coming days.
What’s within the hate speech laws?
The legislation will criminalise hate groups, which would make being a member, recruiting for, training or providing any support to such a group illegal.
To list a group, the director general of security (who is also the head of Asio) would make a recommendation to the home affairs minister. The minister would then need to get agreement from the attorney general, provide a briefing to the opposition leader, and take that recommendation to the governor general for listing.
The minister will also have the power to de-list organisations if they no longer met the definition of a hate group.
That definition, per the legislation, would be: that the group had directly engaged in, prepared, planned or assisted in engaging in conduct constituting a hate crime targeted at a person or persons distinguished by race or national or ethnic origin; the organisation “advocated” engaging in conduct constituting such a hate crime; and that listing the organisation is “reasonably necessary to prevent social, economic, psychological and physical harm”.
A person “intentionally” directing the activities of a designated hate group would face a penalty of 15 years’ jail, whereas a person who directs activities of a group while “reckless” to the fact that it is listed faces up to 10 years.
A person who is found to intentionally be a member of a hate group will face a jail term of up to seven years.
Two groups, the neo-Nazi organisation the National Socialist Network, and Islamist organisation Hizb ut-Tahrir, have been named by the government as targets for the hate group listing, and the former said it would disband before the legislation came into force, and both groups have now scrubbed their social media sites.
The legislation will also further empower the home affairs minister to cancel or reject a visa if they believe a person has engaged in hate, vilification or extremist conduct. These grounds would sit within the already existing character test, but would not give a minister more powers.
These grounds will also apply to those applying for a temporary safe haven visa, which is for people seeking asylum.
Existing laws around the use of prohibited symbols will be strengthened – which will mean a person will now have to prove that public display of a prohibited hate symbol was for a “legitimate purpose”, ban the symbols associated with a designated hate group, and increase penalties for someone displaying a symbol who is “reckless” to the symbol being prohibited.
The new laws will also create “aggravated offences” – meaning stronger penalties – for religious officials who spread hate, in an effort to combat so-called “hate preachers”.
What did the Liberals negotiate from Labor?
The Liberals negotiated several amendments – including that the opposition leader be briefed by the government both when a hate group is being listed and now when it is being de-listed.
Parts of the legislation, including the hate groups listing and strengthening of offences around displaying prohibited symbols, will now be reviewed by a parliamentary inquiry two years after the bill takes effect.
The definition of a hate crime, which would be used to list a “hate group”, has also changed: inciting racial hatred would constitute an offence under commonwealth criminal laws but also under very specific vilification laws under state and territory laws. This was added after the government had to drop its anti-vilification measures from its original bill.
A practical application of that would be that the federal government could – when looking at listing a hate group – consider whether the group has engaged in hateful conduct that would constitute a hate crime under the offence of “publicly inciting hatred on ground of race” within the new racial vilification laws in New South Wales.
The measures to increase the severity of penalties for religious leaders will now be expanded to capture informal leaders or guest speakers at a religious gathering.
What are some of the ongoing concerns?
Constitutional law expert Anne Twomey criticised the new hate group listing when the bill was announced, warning that “no one needs to have been convicted of a hate crime for the minister to be satisfied that an organisation has engaged in conduct constituting a hate crime” and that “there is no requirement for the minister to observe procedural fairness”.
Twomey says the government watered down the listing of hate groups, from requiring that the listing is reasonably necessary to protect the Australian community from social, economic, psychological and physical harm, to protecting just “part” of the Australian community. Writing in the Conversation, she said, “as we have seen in other countries, such protections could be overcome by appointing politically motivated cronies to positions, and contending that all opposition or dissent increases the risk of politically motivated violence and community harm.”
Twomey also raised concerns over the changed definition of a hate crime, and the inclusion of specified state and territory vilification offences. She said the reliance of the laws on state offences “makes the law very messy”.
“This is because in the listed offences from Queensland, South Australia and the ACT, incitement to racial hatred is tied to threatening physical harm, whereas in NSW, Victoria and WA, no threat of harm is required” she wrote.
What are the politicians saying?
The government has said the laws are the “strongest” Australia has seen in combating racial hatred, even if they have had to drop anti-vilification measures.
After the bill passed, Albanese said, “Not as strong as we originally put forward, but no doubt the strongest hate laws that have ever been put in place in Australia have now been achieved. That is a good thing.”
The Liberal party claimed credit for “fixing” the bill. Sussan Ley said the prime minister was “forced to come to the Liberal party to fix legislation he could not draft properly and could not deliver alone”.
The Nationals, who either voted against the bill or abstained, said there wasn’t enough time for consultation, and wanted to move amendments over concerns about limiting the rights of free speech. The Nationals leader, David Littleproud, said the laws were “nothing more than a cheap political diversion”.
The Greens on Wednesday described the bill as “dangerous”, and warned it could have a “draconian effect” on political debate and peaceful protest. The minor party, which supported gun reforms, criticised Labor for negotiating with the Coalition.
The Greens’ David Shoebridge warned legitimate criticism of Israel or the country’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, may be offences, if they cause psychological harm and prompt warnings to the government from intelligence agencies.
