Allan Government's anti-vilification laws are a welcome first step in protecting everyone from hate
The Human Rights Law Centre welcomes the Allan Government’s expansion of groups who will be protected by anti-vilification laws, including LGBTIQA+ and disability communities.
The Justice Legislation Amendment (Anti-vilification and Social Cohesion) Bill 2024 is a positive first step, but the Allan Government must make critical amendments to the bill to ensure that the laws protect everyone and are not misused to criminalise legitimate political speech.
The Human Rights Law Centre is calling on the Allan Government to:
re-insert the "public interest" legal defence to the criminal offence, to safeguard the right to freedom of expression, the right to peaceful assembly, and the implied freedom of political communication, and strike the right balance between the freedom of expression and the need to protect groups from vilification;
remove the new “preaching and proselytising” defense to the civil penalties, which may significantly expand the scope of the religious exception and harmful hate speech against minority groups without adequately protecting rights to equality and non-discrimination;
insert a note that decision makers should take into account power imbalances between the status and position of different parties, as well as the social, historical and political context, when determining whether a person has contravened the laws, to ensure that the laws recognise and address the power imbalances that they were introduced to prevent;
invest in community-led prevention and education programs which de-escalate and challenge racism and hate at its roots."
Arif Hussein, Senior Lawyer at the Human Rights Law Centre said:
"It represents a positive step that anti-vilification laws will protect everyone from hate, no matter their race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, disability, or ethnicity. Any exceptions to these laws for the purpose of religious teaching should be extremely limited, otherwise these laws risk being selectively applied, and undermining principles of equality and non-discrimination.
"The removal of the criminal defence means that these laws now risk being misused to criminalise legitimate political speech and infringing on the constitutionally implied freedom of political communication. The government should reinsert a public interest defence to ensure that they don't have unintended consequences.
"While anti-vilification laws are a positive signal on what the Victorian community stands for, laws alone will not stamp out hate. We call on the Allan Government to invest in community-led prevention and education programs which de-escalate and challenge racism and hate at its roots."