‘We need to lower the temperature’: Hate speech laws could pass in February

Hate speech laws criminalising violent threats against racial or religious groups could be in force within weeks, as Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus rejects claims from senior Israeli politicians that the Albanese government’s policies on Israel have fuelled a surge in antisemitism.

Dreyfus, who returned from a six-day diplomatic mission to Israel on Monday, confirmed that the Australian Federal Police was investigating whether overseas criminal groups had paid Australians to commit antisemitic attacks.

Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus said the government had pulled “all the levers” it could to combat antisemitism.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

AFP commissioner Reece Kershaw made a significant intervention into the discussion on antisemitism by saying “criminals for hire” could be behind some recent attacks on Jewish sites, a suggestion backed by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Wednesday.

“We believe criminals for hire may be behind some incidents, so part of our inquiries include who is paying those criminals, where those people are, whether they are in Australia or offshore, and what their motivation is,” Kershaw said.

Speaking in an interview with this masthead, Dreyfus said: “It’s one line of inquiry that has come up for some of these incidents.”

Dreyfus said introducing criminal penalties for hate speech would be a major priority when parliament resumed in February, arguing the laws would combat antisemitism by “lowering the temperature in Australia”.

“I would be very hopeful that, parliamentary priorities permitting, the legislation will be able to be brought forward and passed when the parliament sits again in February, in the next sitting period,” he said.

Dreyfus’s proposal would criminalise threatening violence against racial or religious groups, as well as threats motivated by gender identity or sexual orientation, but stop short of outlawing vilification and ridicule, thereby avoiding some of the trickier free speech debates.

Shadow attorney-general Michaelia Cash said this week that the opposition wanted to work with the government to pass hate speech laws, calling on the government to strengthen the legislation to criminalise the urging or threatening of attacks against places of worship.

Dreyfus, who is Jewish, said the rise of “shocking” and “abhorrent” antisemitic attacks in cities such as Sydney and Melbourne was the worst he had seen in his lifetime.

“It’s unacceptable, and it has to stop,” he said, pushing back on claims by the Coalition and Jewish community groups that the government had moved too slowly to stamp out antisemitism after the October 7 attacks.

“Our government has pulled all of the levers that it can to combat this scourge. It is called the world’s oldest hatred, and it is hard to stamp out.”

Asked about a call by opposition home affairs spokesman James Paterson for more detail from the government on the suggestion from the AFP that foreign actors might be behind the attacks, Dreyfus said: “Mr Paterson should stop attacking the Australian Federal Police and stop seeking to gain politically from this conflict or any of the events which have occurred in Australia.”

He also pushed back on the opposition’s call for mandatory minimum jail sentences for antisemitic offences, saying: “There’s no evidence that mandatory sentences have an effect, and that is a general statement.”

NSW Police on Wednesday arrested a man who allegedly tried to burn down a synagogue in Newtown, in Sydney’s inner-west, but are still investigating who firebombed a childcare centre in Sydney’s east and vandalised the former home of prominent Jewish Australian Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-chief executive Alex Ryvchin.

A Victoria police spokesman on Wednesday said they were still hunting for at least three offenders suspected to have been involved in the December arson attack on the Adass Israel synagogue in Melbourne.

The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation is also helping the investigation, along with other federal agencies, to check whether foreign governments, global terror groups, known extremist organisations or organised crime groups are using cryptocurrency payments to encourage attacks on Jewish Australians.

Authorities believe the tactics from other cases – such as using low-level criminals to firebomb tobacco shops or intimidate people – are now being used to fund and organise antisemitic attacks.

After meeting Dreyfus in Israel last week, deputy Israeli Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel said she had expressed her concern at the surge of antisemitic attacks in Australia.

“There is no doubt this has been caused in part by the Australian government’s ongoing campaign against Israel,” she said, echoing a fiery December social media post by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Dreyfus said he did not believe the government’s decision to break with Israel on several United Nations votes had contributed to attacks on Jewish Australians. “I think it is extremely unlikely that the tiny number of people in Australia who have engaged in these abhorrent antisemitic attacks on people and on property are reading the votes in the United Nations General Assembly,” he said.

Dreyfus said he had received a warm and welcoming reception in Israel, where he said he stressed “the very long-standing friendship between Australia and Israel”.

“I was making clear Australia’s support for Israel’s security, support for Israel’s right to defend itself against terrorism,” he said.

“I was making it clear that there is, as far as Australia is concerned, no role for Hamas in the future government in Gaza.”

Dreyfus also called for more humanitarian aid to flow into Gaza, and said Australia expected Israel to comply with international law.

Zionist Federation of Australia President Jeremy Leibler said it was “pretty scary but not that surprising” that foreign groups could be encouraging the surge of antisemitism in Australia.

He said the Australian government’s change in voting record at the United Nations on Israel had “made the Jewish community feel less safe, more fragile and more exposed than ever before”.

Simone Abel, head of legal at the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, said it “comes as no surprise” to the Jewish community that foreign forces could be funding antisemitic attacks, but added: “These revelations are very concerning to the community.”

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