A New South Wales parliamentary inquiry into banning phrases including “globalise the intifada” will not hold any public hearings and has a matter of days to receive submissions before it produces its final report.
The NSW opposition has expressed concern that the Labor-controlled inquiry, established to investigate the banning of “hateful statements” after the deadly Bondi attack, was being rushed through, limiting the ability of communities to consult on legislative changes.
The opposition leader, Kellie Sloane, said the committee on measures to prohibit slogans that incite hatred had been “rushed over the holiday season, with no notice, no public hearings and an impossibly short deadline”.
“If the government is serious about tackling hate speech and antisemitism in our community they would establish a comprehensive inquiry, affording communities the opportunity to engage.”
The closing deadline for submissions is 12 January, just three weeks after the inquiry was referred to a parliamentary committee on 22 December. The committee is expected to report back to the government at the end of January.
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The inquiry was flagged by the premier, Chris Minns, last month, when changes to gun control, hate speech and protest laws were rushed through parliament after the Bondi attack.
Minns singled out the phrase “globalise the intifada” as “hateful, violent rhetoric”, saying he intended to ban it, but the government decided to ask the committee to investigate prohibitions on “hateful statements” before bringing in legislative changes.
The inquiry’s terms of reference require it to consider “the threat that the use of phrases like ‘globalise the intifada’ poses to community cohesion”, and how to prevent the use of hate speech without restricting the implied freedom of political communication in the Australian constitution, as well as controversial existing hate speech laws.
It is being conducted by the NSW lower house’s law and safety committee. The composition of that committee was decided on by a majority of MPs at the start of the Minns government’s term in 2023.
It is made up of four Labor MPs, including chair Edmond Atalla, as well as Greens MP Tamara Smith, independent Philip Donato, and the opposition representative, Nationals MP and shadow police minister Paul Toole. It does not include any Liberal members.
The Liberals have called for the government to establish a standalone inquiry, with public hearings and a longer time frame. Guardian Australia understands this would include direct Liberal representation on the committee, in addition to Toole.
Donato told Guardian Australia he and other non-government members on the committee had raised concerns about the three-week time frame for submissions and the inquiry taking place over the holiday period, but government members had stressed the urgency of responding to the Bondi attack.
The Greens justice spokesperson, Sue Higginson, said the timeframe of the inquiry was “disingenuous”.
“We rightly expected a genuine and inclusive inquiry where issues could be canvassed fulsomely. We are traversing uncertain legal territory in terms of enacting laws that could be constitutionally invalid.”
In a statement, Atalla defended the committee’s timeline, saying it had a “clear objective of ensuring parliament can act quickly when it returns in early February”.
“Given that timeframe, the inquiry will not hold public hearings,” he told Guardian Australia. Atalla said engagement had been “broad and substantive” and 100 stakeholders had been approached to provide submissions.
“We are not going to allow the opposition to slow down the urgent need to address hateful slogans like ‘globalise the intifada’.”
The phrase, from the Arabic for uprising or “shaking off”, is used to refer to two uprisings by Palestinians against Israel in 1987 and 2000, and remains controversial.
The inquiry’s terms of reference include considering “international examples of best practice to combat the use of such slogans”, including in the UK, where police have arrested protesters who have allegedly called for intifada.
The NSW Jewish Board of Deputies welcomed the move to ban the phrase as a “watershed moment in confronting the hate and incitement which has proliferated on our streets”.
“Globalising the intifada means killing a Jew wherever you find one. It’s a call to violence and it leads to violence,” the peak body said last month.
Josh Lees, organiser for the Palestine Action Group (PAG), said when announcing the group’s intention to challenge a law to restrict public assemblies after terrorist incidents last month, that the phrase was a “basic act of us supporting the uprisings of Palestinians against their oppression, against illegal occupation and genocide”.
“The fact that Chris Minns wants to ban it might make it popular. That’s the irony of this whole thing.”
Asked about Lees’ comments, Minns said: “I think [the phrase ‘globalise the intifada’] leads to disharmony. I think it must be part of changes to the law that we’re proposing in NSW.”
Lees told Guardian Australia that PAG, a frequent organiser of pro-Palestine protests including August’s march on the Sydney Harbour bridge, had not been approached by the inquiry but planned to make a public submission.
