Two years have flipped the script on free speech. Now Australia is in new territory |
Ever since protesters took to the steps of the Sydney Opera House in October 2023 – where chants of “where’s the Jews” and other antisemitic phrases were heard in the crowd – Australia’s political debate over freedom of speech has flipped the typical script.
The Coalition once pushed to water down the elements of Australia’s Racial Discrimination Act that protect people from offence or insult. Now it’s leading calls for the law to enforce stronger moral standards. The Greens most vigorously defended putting guardrails around harmful speech during debate in previous years. Now they’ve become the loudest advocates of academic freedom and the right to protest.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke announced new hate speech laws on Thursday.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
The dynamics have starkly shifted in the decade since former Liberal attorney-general George Brandis defended people’s right to be bigots. And now, after Sunday’s terror attack targeted the Jewish community, we are on new ground altogether.
Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said so on Thursday, when he announced stronger hate speech laws that would mark new legal territory in Australia, and push the law to its constitutional limits. They include two new offences: a targeted offence of “aggravated hate speech” for preachers and leaders who promote violence, and a federal offence of “serious vilification based on race” that will apply to the rest of the community.
But legislating around speech has never been straightforward, as successive governments can attest. These new vilification laws will keep testing the boundaries of political speech in Australia – such as whether they encompass controversial phrases such as “river to the sea” or “globalise the intifada” – and are likely to reignite debate about extending protections to other minority groups.
For now, the tougher laws look to have bipartisan support. It’s an irony that has struck Queensland University professor Katharine Gelber.
“We have people like John Howard and other Coalition party members who spent 40 years in parliament arguing against hate speech laws, on the grounds of free speech, now arguing that........