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How is hate evolving and impacting Australia?
SBS Examines has taken an in-depth look at hatred and division across Australia in our Understanding Hate series. Here’s what we’ve learnt.
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By Nicolas Zoumboulis, Jordan Osborne, Nicola McCaskill, Catarina Fraga Matos
Source: SBS
Image: SBS Examines has been exploring how hate is impacting society. Image credits: Getty Images, AAP, Pexels
In a special series, Understanding Hate, SBS Examines delved into the forces driving division in our communities.
What we uncovered lay bare the confronting complexity of hate in contemporary Australia — but also highlighted the hope and resilience of those pushing back.
Where does hate come from?
Hatred can have far-reaching, devastating consequences, and it's often rooted in long-standing prejudices that date back centuries.
Dr Matteo Vergani, sociologist and director of the Tackling Hate Lab, said prejudice is hardwired in our brains, as a result of evolutionary defences.
"For thousands of generations, human beings lived in small bands hunting, gathering full food in hostile environments where basically survival dependent on the group. So strangers could bring violence or take resources. This is why when we see someone who looks different, our brain immediately says, danger, fear, escape, run," he said.
Although the wiring of our brain hasn't changed much since we were hunting in small groups, Dr Vergani told SBS Examines we can still resist hate.
Our brain has checks. So we have a prefrontal cortex in our brain which can override emotional impulses.
"So even if we feel the urge to have prejudice, to fear someone who looks different, actually we are socialised to resist bias, and most people do."
Nick Haslam, a professor of psychology at The University of Melbourne, defined hatred as “that kind of intense, lasting dislike of someone because of the group they belong to based on some sense that they’re intrinsically evil or morally wicked.”
“It’s based on a belief that you have suffered unfairly, unreasonably at the hands of someone else or some other group," Prof Haslam said.
“That drives an emotional state which is often a chronic kind of anger or contempt, aggressiveness or hostility. And that motivates action, which is usually some sort of revenge, or distancing, or a desire to see the people you hate suffer in some way.”
There's no universal agreement on what counts as hate or hate speech.
"One of the interesting things is that people differ a lot in what they define as being hateful," Prof Haslam said.
“Some people are much more likely to see the use of racial slurs as being intrinsically hateful and violent, other people less so,” he said.
Economic anxiety and the blame game
Dr James O’Donnell, a demographer at the Australian National University, said economic conditions can shape our attitudes towards migrants.
“When people are worried about the economy and when they themselves experience unemployment or financial stress, their attitudes towards migration deteriorate a little,” he said.
At the University of New South Wales, Professor Daniel Ghezelbash has been researching how we can counter misinformation about migrants and refugees.
Prof Ghezelbash said they have been unfairly blamed for everything from the housing crisis to rising inflation.
It’s an age-old tactic where political actors exploit xenophobia for their advantage.
"People often click on things and share things without examining them in detail. And that information is actually really designed to stoke a very strong emotional reaction," he said.
The outrage economy
Online spaces have become fertile ground for hate to spread. Tim Dean, resident philosopher at The Ethics Centre, said that’s no accident.
Posts that are angry or express some kind of negative sentiment spread more than posts that say something positive.
"They love to promote that outrage because that's also what promotes engagement. And engagement means money for social media companies.”
Dr Nora Amath, Executive Director of the Islamophobia Register Australia, said social media companies aren’t doing enough to stop the deliberate spread of hate on their platform.
She said loosening community standards across platforms like X (formerly Twitter) and Meta has made the situation worse.
"We almost call it the Islamophobia machine, that unfortunately there are elements or actors whose whole job it is to fuel Islamophobia," she said.
The Islamophobia Register's most recent report found a 250 per cent increase in online hate incidents.
“We used to be able to report a lot of things, saying that it doesn’t meet community standards. Now those reports are rejected. We’re really concerned about that,” Dr Amath said.
Experts told SBS Examines extremists have made use of these shifting standards, and use the online world to recruit young people looking for belonging and connection.
Jamie told SBS Examines he found much-needed connection through online gaming communities, where extremist language and ideas were encouraged.
Once you start normalising really awful words and behaviours and attitudes, it does seep into you.
A shifting social norm
Dr Matteo Vergani has been sounding the alarm over the long-term impacts of online hate.
“One of the most scary effects is that it’s changing norms,” he said.
The cumulative effect of hatred injected into millions of online conversations is that hatred is going to become more common.
Dr Tim Dean, resident philosopher at the Ethics Centre, described hate as having a powerful and corrosive effect on our relationships.
“It prevents us from engaging and trying to understand, and it can prevent us from perspective taking to understand that people see the world, engage the world in different ways,” he said.
Communities facing fear and security concerns
In Western Sydney, Joumana Nasour Tanana has called Australia home for 35 years. She said as a Muslim woman who wears a hijab, she always felt free from discrimination — until the October 7 attacks in 2023.
“I was walking on the beach and suddenly a man on the bike, he started swearing at me and he started to tell me, go back to your country. He was very aggressive," she said.
I was preparing myself: If it happens again to me, what should I do and what action I should take?
In Melbourne, Nomi Kaltmann, an Orthodox Jewish woman, said her community is also feeling the weight of fear.
“My son goes to a Hebrew school where they've been practicing active shooter drills and lockdown drills, which I find confronting and scary.”
"Hate puts a chill in everything that Jewish people do."
Asian Australians confronted by pandemic-era racism
The COVID-19 pandemic triggered a wave of racism against Asian Australians — one that Erin Wen Ai Chew documented firsthand.
Back in 2020, Ms Wen Ai Chew was surveying Asian Australians on their experiences of racism tied to the pandemic.
She said misinformation and disinformation was contributing to people's real life experiences of hatred.
“A lot of doctors who were of Asian heritage were coming on social media telling people that patients were refusing care from them because to the patients, they looked Chinese, whether they were or not.”
Changing communities reveal new fault lines
Tigist Kebede is a trauma counsellor who works with young African Australians — a group under intense scrutiny.
She said there are differences and changes in the way African diaspora have felt the impacts of racism.
Factors such as gender, class, faith, migration status, migration pathway, skin tone, all influence how racism is experienced and responded to.
"Older generations historically have experienced more overt and systemic racism ... whereas younger generations mostly disclose around subtle and everyday forms of racism,” she said.
Emerging community leaders, like Robiel Abraham, are working to help bridge generational divides and improve social cohesion.
“Learning how to build that resiliency in the face of hate or racism is something that our parents could really teach our younger people," he said.
Some people are shining a light on hatred and discrimination within their own communities.
South Asian community members told SBS Examines they have faced discrimination for their perceived caste status.
Dr Vikrant Kishore, a journalist and filmmaker, comes from a Dalit background — also known as an “untouchable”.
He said caste discrimination is a growing issue in Australia, as migrants from lower caste backgrounds have migrated here and exposed deeply entrenched prejudices within existing South Asian communities.
It's a taboo topic, but one that's important to talk about.
“Not everyone does practise casteism, but because it is a reality, we need to address that ... instead of being defensive, we should have solidarity across the board,” Dr Kishore said.
LGBTIQ+ communities facing rising hostility
Frank Bonnici, a gay man from Melbourne, told SBS Examines he was attacked by a group of young people when holding hands with his partner.
"A group of kids were yelling homophobic stuff to us. I decided to call back saying: 'yeah, what are you going to do about it?'" he said.
They took out a machete and just swiped at me. So I'm lucky to be alive.
While transgender people are a small minority in the population, they've also been the target of charged legislative debates and online hate.
Professor Nicole Asquith, a criminologist from the University of Tasmania, said trans and gender diverse people face a "fraught experience just going out in public."
"There has been a significant increase in online hate, which is now transferring into that in-person hate as well," Prof Asquith said.
People with disability: an overlooked target of hate
SBS Examines has heard from people with disabilities that discrimination constantly shapes the way they navigate public spaces.
Their stories highlight that hate is not limited to race, ethnicity, or religion; it impacts anyone who is perceived as different.
The hidden health toll of hate
Psychologist Kelleigh Ryan, a descendant of the Kabi Kabi people and Australian South Sea Islanders, said racism isn’t just emotionally damaging: it also affects the body at a physiological level.
She said First Nations peoples experience racism so often, it can contribute to ongoing health problems.
“What's happening is your body's getting flooded with cortisol and adrenaline," she said.
"We experience racism every day and so you don't get to actually disperse that chemical response. So, all those chemicals stay in your body and they cause chronic disease."
Extremism gains new momentum
Large-scale rallies against immigration made national headlines this year.
Julian Droogan, an expert in counter-terrorism and an associate professor at Macquarie University, said extremist groups used the rallies to mainstream their hateful ideas.
"The heart of middle Australia is being fought over by different groups and the far right and their extremist organisations would love to have more regular Australians move into their way of seeing the world," he said.
But A/Prof Droogan warned against stereotyping attendees, many of whom said they weren’t driven by racism or hate.
It's much more important that we're able to give spaces in our society and in our democracy for people to have discussions, even difficult discussions.
"Not be pushed to the fringes where they might meet these sorts of bad and insincere political actors, like the far-right," he said.
How can we combat hate in Australia?
Here’s how education, facts, and everyday actions are helping to make a difference.
The power of education: Learning about others and ourselves
A number of experts we spoke to emphasised that learning about different cultures is one powerful tool we have to counter prejudice.
Jordan Young, a Darumbal man based in Rockhampton, runs workshops that teach Indigenous culture to schools and businesses.
He said helping young people see the world from another perspective can help shift misplaced or harmful beliefs.
You’re not born with racism. It’s a learned trait.
“So being able to give these kids another viewpoint, another perspective on Aboriginal culture is very, very important.”
Research from Reconciliation Australia found that young people and multicultural communities are the most likely to take part in truth-telling initiatives and celebrations of First Nations culture.
Shereen Hassan, Director of Education and Community Engagement at the Islamic Museum of Australia, has also witnessed the role of education in breaking down deep-seated fears.
“There was a 91-year-old woman who said to me: 'for years I’ve felt crippled with fear towards Islam and Muslims, and you’re the first Muslim I’ve ever spoken to. Coming here, seeing all this beautiful art, and meeting Muslims, all that fear has dissipated',” Hassan told SBS Examines.
“People tend to fear the unknown, and when they’re given an opportunity to experience Islam through art and through history, it’s life-changing.”
Education isn’t just about learning about others, it’s also about deepening connection to one’s own identity.
Kelleigh Ryan said knowing your cultural roots builds resilience.
“If you’re connected to your language, your country, your people, your culture, you have a strong identity about who you are. You’re going to react very differently to someone who doesn’t have those connections,” she told SBS Examines.
Similarly, Udaybir Singh, a Sikh father, said helping his son understand and explain why he looks different to his peers helped him adjust to primary school.
As the only patka-wearing student in the school, Udaybir knew his son might attract curiosity and wanted him to feel confident.
“I thought the best way to fix it, first of all, was to explain to my own kid: you need to understand why you look differently. Then you have to explain it to others before they make assumptions.”
To prepare, Udaybir helped his son create a presentation and short story book to show his classmates at the beginning of every school year, which explains why he wears a head covering.
Fighting misinformation with a “fact sandwich”
When false or misleading claims spread quickly, especially online, experts told SBS Examines it's not always worth engaging — in fact, that can just perpetuate it.
But if we do see misinformation showing up widely and persuasively, responding with facts in the right way can make a difference.
Professor Daniel Ghezelbash, a scholar of international and comparative refugee and migration law from the University of New South Wales, told SBS Examines he recommends a "fact sandwich" approach to counter false claims:
1. Start with a fact: “When Australia’s borders were closed during the COVID-19 pandemic, migration was at its lowest level in a century, yet house prices still went up,” he said.
2. Warn about the myth: “Instead of tackling the real issues, some political actors are just blaming migrants as if they're the reason that housing has become unaffordable."
3. Point out the fallacy: “That’s oversimplifying the problem to distract from the actual causes.”
4. End with a fact: “There are many factors driving Australia’s housing crisis and migration is only a very small piece of the puzzle.”
By starting and ending with facts and clearly identifying the myth in between, this approach helps people focus on what’s true, not what’s false.
The limits of education
While education can help reduce certain forms of hate and discrimination, experts told SBS Examines it's not a silver bullet.
Behavioural scientist Dr Erik Denison from Monash University researched what causes homophobic behaviour in traditionally male-dominated settings, like sport or mining sites.
He said knowledge and pre-existing attitudes don’t predict behaviour.
“What we found was it didn’t matter if a young man or boy had very positive attitudes or very negative attitudes, they were just as likely to use homophobic language."
Dr Denison said community leaders need to to shift group culture and reshape how men perceive each other in order for their behaviour to change.
Everyday actions: checking in and speaking up
Sometimes, combatting hate starts with small acts of care and solidarity.
“If you have a Jewish friend, perhaps just check in with them. It’s been a really tough almost two years for Jewish people living in Australia. To know that you stand with them, that you’re against antisemitism and you want them to feel welcome in this country would be really reassuring,” she said.
But what about when we see hate playing out in public?
Professor Kevin Dunn from Western Sydney University said many Australians want to intervene, but often don’t.
“There’s a gap between people’s ambitions in this area and their actual actions,” he said.
“When you ask people in surveys whether they’d take action, the number is around 70 per cent. But when you ask if they’ve ever actually done so, that drops below 40 to even 30 per cent.”
Dr Haily Tran, a psychologist specialising in hate-based ideologies, told SBS Examines interventions disrupt hate in the moment and signals that behaviour isn’t acceptable.
When people step in, it makes a difference.
"Stepping in with others is more effective and safer, even if you don't do anything at all. Just sheer numbers of people surrounding the person who's been targeted is very, very helpful," she said.
Intervention doesn’t always mean direct confrontation; it can often be done subtly.
"Direct confrontation isn't always the best thing or the most safest or even necessary thing to do," Dr Tran told SBS Examines.
"Stepping in physically and doing nothing, our presence alone can reduce the harm ... it can deescalate the perpetrator from taking further action as well."
The overall aim should be to support the person being targeted through showing kindness.
Building stronger communities
Social cohesion is everyone's responsibility, and it starts in our own neighbourhood.
When it comes to fighting hate, one of the strongest protective factors is positive and diverse community engagement.
Every Saturday morning, Melbourne community group Carry and Connect brings together men from diverse backgrounds to meet, talk, and carry heavy objects on a long walk.
"Through the walking, with the weight coming together, you sort of forget about yourself and you can decompress with the men via talking about what you're struggling with and what's going on in your life," he said.
Through the group, Willem realised he is not just an individual, but "part of a whole".
We build tolerance through men coming together, forgetting the little name tags of being a doctor, being a lawyer, being a policeman.
"We had an immigrant join us recently. He came to Australia via boat and (we) really started to see his side of the story. He wasn't just an immigrant anymore. Now he was one of us. So next time when I hear something in the news about an immigrant I go, but hold on, that could be that guy," Willem said.
Experts told SBS Examines extremist groups can appeal to everyday people if they feel their voices are disrespected or unheard.
Dr James O’Donnell from the Australian National University said our trust in others comes from the people we're connecting with on a daily basis.
"There's got to be some sort of bridges between people of different backgrounds across society to build up our overall societal level of cohesion," Dr O’Donnell said.
Hope on the horizon
Overseas, we've been seeing increasingly charged and even violent positions on issues like migration, racism and social cohesion.
Dr O’Donnell said that’s good reason to remain optimistic.
There is a positive story there.
"Hang onto that and celebrate that, and look into what makes that strong and how we can maintain it," he said.
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