Hate laws ‘must protect places of worship’, says Liberal senator Paul Scarr

Liberal senator Paul Scarr has called for Labor’s hate speech bill to be expanded to create an offence of ‘urging or threatening’ an attack on a place of worship.

Anthony Albanese visits Adass Israel Synagogue in Ripponlea, which was destroyed after a firebombing last week. Picture: Instagram

Liberal senator Paul Scarr has called for Labor’s hate speech bill to be expanded to create an offence of “urging or threatening” an attack on a place of worship, after the firebombing of a Melbourne synagogue amid a surge in anti-Semitism.

A senate committee scrutinising the legislation, which will make it a serious criminal offence to threaten to use force or violence against a group, has recommended the parliament pass the legislation when it returns in February.

The bipartisan committee of senators also recommended the government establish a federal database to track hate crimes, monitor their occurrence and inform future responses.

In a report handed down on Thursday following an inquiry which heard evidence from faith leaders, equality and disability advocates, Senator Scarr said he supported the bill but urged the need for the laws to capture attacks, such as the one inflicted on the Adass Israel Synagogue.

He drew a parallel with the Night of Broken Glass in Nazi Germany in 1938, during which synagogues and Jewish businesses were torched.

“Given events of the last week, there is a clear case to be made for expanding the offences to include the urging or threatening of attacks against places of worship,” he said in the report.

“It is recommended that the offences be expanded to include the urging or threatening of attacks against places of worship.”

Labor senator Nita Green. Picture: NewsWire/Martin Ollman

Labor senator Nita Green, who chaired the inquiry, said the committee agreed the changes to strengthen existing criminal laws banning hate speech were “sadly necessary”.

“According to submitters and witnesses, the objectives of the bill and its provisions are generally well supported,” she said in the report. “The majority of submitters supported the introduction of new criminal offences and the amendments to existing criminal offences, to respond to the increase in discrimination and hate speech.”

Senator Green said the committee had rejected calls for the bill to introduce a “serious vilification offence”, reasoning the legislation already addressed the most extreme forms of hate speech.

The bill introduced by Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus will criminalise threats to use force or violence against a group, or a member of a group, where a reasonable member of the targeted group fears the threat will be carried out. The new offence would be punishable with up to five years in prison or seven years in instances where it threatens the peace, order and good government of the commonwealth.

The bill will also toughen laws criminalising the display of Nazi and terrorist organisation symbols “likely to offend, insult, humiliate or intimidate a person” from a particular group. The committee also recommended the bill be amended to include disability in its list of protected attributes and expanded to protect “associates of protected groups” from threats or urgings of violence.

The bill has been criticised by the Executive Council of Australian Jewry for not going far enough, arguing that the test for whether hate speech should be criminalised should change to “promotes, advocates or glorifies the use of force or violence against another person, or a group”.