How do Australia's new laws help prevent and respond to hate speech?

Two mouths arguing with speech bubbles and graphic symbols in between them

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said, “the world has seen hate speech as a precursor to atrocity crimes.” Source: Getty / Richard Drury

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According to the United Nations, governments around the world are struggling to counter hate speech.

In February, Federal Parliament passed the Criminal Code Amendment (Hate Crimes)

Bill, making changes to the existing hate crime provisions in the Criminal Code Act of 1995.

The Bill was introduced to Parliament last year, by Federal Labor MP and former Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus.

He said the new protections will support law enforcement’s ability to intervene early to prevent acts of violence.

With these laws, we are sending a clear signal to those who seek to divide us. There is no place in this country for hate speech and other hateful conduct that urges or threatens violence against others.

But some experts say more needs to be done to support targeted communities.

Ahead of the International Day for Countering Hate Speech on June 18, we ask how Australia’s new hate speech laws aim to deal with the impact on our society, and what else can be done.

Transcript

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SBS acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Country and their connections and continuous care for the skies, lands and waterways across Australia.

Olivia

From SBS Examines, I'm Olivia Di Iorio. SBS Examines is here to dispel misinformation and disinformation impacting social cohesion. Back in 2019 the United Nations launched a Strategy and Plan of Action on Hate Speech. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said, “the world has seen hate speech as a precursor to atrocity crimes.” He said Governments are struggling to prevent and respond to orchestrated online hate, and proclaimed the 18th of June as the International Day for Countering Hate Speech. The day invites us to consider how we can identify, address and counter hate speech. In this episode, we ask how Australia’s new Hate Speech laws aim to deal with the impact on our society, and what else can be done.

Nadia Saeed

I was in the car. I was at a red light, and I had a man in a ute start to verbally abuse my sister and I.

Olivia

Nadia Saeed is talking about an incident last year when she experienced hate speech as a Muslim woman. A warning, what she says happened next is distressing,

Nadia Saeed

And he started putting the finger up following me in the car at one point and he was getting very aggressive yelling out ‘go back to where you came from, Muslims don’t belong here’, and he became very heavily abusive and my main focus at that point in time was to get away from him. So I didn’t even think to take down the number plate or to record the situation.

Olivia

As a community leader, Nadia says the impact of hate speech on not only herself but her community is significant.

Nadia Saeed

I’m someone that’s always been very outspoken, never been afraid to walk out with my hijab on, but I find that nowadays I’m a little bit hesitant. I prefer to go to certain places with another person rather than going alone. There's a lot of frustration, there's a lot of fear, and there's a lot of disappointment as well because as a community, we thought we'd really built amazing bridges we've built relationships with communities. And unfortunately the rhetoric is not really that great at this point in time.

Olivia

In February, Federal Parliament passed the Criminal Code Amendment (Hate Crimes) Bill, making changes to the existing hate crime provisions in the Criminal Code Act of 1995. The Bill was introduced to Parliament last year, by Federal Labor MP and former Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus. He said the new protections will support law enforcement’s ability to intervene early to prevent acts of violence.

Mark Dreyfus

They will better enable our law enforcement agencies to disrupt, investigate and protect against the harms caused by those who foster hatred, extremism or incitement to violence.

Olivia

Its purpose is to strengthen Australia’s existing laws, in response to recent spates of antisemitic violence.

Mark Dreyfus

With these laws, we are sending a clear signal to those who seek to divide us. There is no place in this country for hate speech and other hateful conduct that urges or threatens violence against others.

Olivia

Sarah Schwartz is the Legal Director of the Human Rights Law Centre. She says it was already a criminal offence to urge force or violence against specific groups.

Sarah Schwartz

And those groups weren’t just limited to race, religion or national origin, but also included sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, intersex status and disability. The government changed the intention requirement from intentionality to recklessness so a bit of a lower threshold.

Olivia

Dr. Nicole Shackleton is a socio-legal researcher at RMIT University. She says although these laws are welcomed, more needs to be done.

Nicole Shackleton

there's questions about how effective these laws will actually be at providing results for the communities that are often targeted by hate speech. Secondly, this targeted approach towards hate speech doesn't include any civil laws.

Olivia

She says civil laws would give targeted communities more power, to better counter hate speech.

Nicole Shackleton

While these criminal laws do send a strong message to the community that hate speech is unacceptable, there is less agency or power in the hands of the victims to make complaints or engage in supported, meaningful dialogue with the people who have subjugated them to this hate speech. And civil laws are able to do that.

Olivia

Nadia Saeed says her community in Brisbane welcomes the new laws.

Nadia Saeed

It feels like it's an added layer of protection, and it's actually saying that we're hearing the voices of victims of hate speech, and we acknowledge you, and we will stand up against this as a country.

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This episode was produced by SBS Examines. In future episodes, we'll look further into how we can counter hate. For more information, visit SBS.com.au/sbsexamines.

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