NSW Premier Chris Minns signals he could strengthen hate speech laws amid anti-Semitic, ‘racist’ sermons
NSW Premier Chris Minns has given the strongest indicator yet that he’d be open to strengthening hate speech laws after Jewish leaders said they had no choice but to take legal action against anti-Semitic sermons.
NSW Premier Chris Minns has given the strongest indication yet that he’d be open to strengthening hate speech laws, after Jewish leaders said they had no choice but to take legal action themselves against anti-Semitic sermons by Islamic preachers.
Speaking in Sydney on Wednesday in his first address since the Christmas break, Mr Minns said the sermons had “no place in NSW” and that if laws that had already been strengthened by his government were not addressing the “racist” rhetoric, then he would have no issue strengthening the legislation again.
“The government has shown that it’s willing to take legislative action to change the law if we don’t believe that the provisions in place have gone far enough (to combat hate speech),” the Premier said, citing amendments to section 93Z of the crimes act.
“We’re showing a willingness to do that (in) the future.”
It comes after The Australian revealed a series of anti-Semitic sermons that called Jews “descendants of pigs and monkeys”, and “monsters … thirsty for bloodshed”, and how the Executive Council of Australian Jewry was taking legal action itself after state and federal police felt forced to drop inquiries, saying the sermons hadn’t breached the criminality threshold.
“I’m not ruling out further changes, especially if current laws mean that people, without fear or favour, are able to sow seeds of division in our communities,” Mr Minns said.
He stopped short of revealing if and when he could strengthen hate speech laws, or if it would take a certain event or level of rhetoric to instigate a change.
“It’s not easy to change laws relating to public speech … anyone that’s looked at this in any jurisdiction would tell you it’s not an easy policy area to navigate,” he said.
“The reporting indicates that these sermons have been outrageous and clearly racist in both nature and intent, and should be called out for exactly that – designed to sow seeds of division and attack particular people of faith.
“It’s important that we have laws that reflect that we have people from across the world who call NSW home.
“We don’t want silos placed between different groups, we want to live within one multicultural community and that does require, at different points, legislative changes (to show that) there’s clear intent from the majority that there’s no place in our state for public racism like that (the sermons).”
ECAJ co-chief executive Peter Wertheim welcomed the Premier’s willingness to improve hate speech laws in NSW.
“(Existing laws) have been shown to fall short of what is needed and what the public expects,” he said.
“The whipping up of racial hatred between Australians is totally unacceptable and has nothing to do with free speech.
“We hope that the various proposals put forward to successive NSW governments over many years on behalf of the Jewish community to address this problem will now be considered seriously.”
In November, the Minns government “streamlined” section 93Z of the state crimes act, which makes it illegal to incite violence against someone for their race or religion, so that police wouldn’t be required to receive approval from the Director of Public Prosecutions to lay charges.
The government introduced religious vilification into the civil Anti-Discrimination Act last year, which outlawed inciting “contempt” and “hatred” on the basis of faith. The ECAJ remains in discussions about the legal path it would pursue against some of the clerics, although The Australian understands the likely route would be via the Australian Human Rights Commission and Federal Court under the Racial Discrimination Act.
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton said he would support any move by federal Labor to strengthen commonwealth protections against hate speech and that the Albanese government should foot the ECAJ’s legal bill.
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