The Daily Populous Monday November 11st, 2024 day edition
Authored by abc.net.au and submitted by feetofire

Victoria's hate speech laws will be drastically expanded beyond race and religion to protect the LGBTQIA+ community and people with a disability — and the threshold for police to bring criminal charges will be significantly lowered.

The proposed changes to the Racial and Religious Tolerance Act will have to walk a tightrope between individual rights, free speech and religious belief but have been welcomed by some religious and community groups.

Even before the laws have been tabled in parliament some religious groups — including the Melbourne Catholic Archdiocese — have flagged concerns that there is not enough explicit protection in the laws for religious teachings and belief.

"This isn't about curtailing people's ability to practice the religion that they hold. This is squarely about protecting vulnerable people from hate speech,'' Attorney-General Jaclyn Symes told the ABC.

Victoria's Attorney-General Jaclyn Symes says expanding the scope of the state's anti-vilification laws is not designed to limit freedom of religion. (ABC News)

"If there are communications that are done in reason, in genuine good faith observance of religious practice, that will be an exception under the laws as it currently is."

Laws expand to include disability, gender identity, sex and sexual orientation

The current anti-vilification regime only covers race and religious belief or activity, and has seen just a few convictions upheld in the past two decades.

Police must prove that a person has incited hatred and threatened physical harm or damage.

Under the proposed legislative changes, prosecutors would only need to prove incitement of hatred or threaten physical harm on the ground of a person's attribute.

In a bid to protect free speech a new defence of political purpose would be introduced for incitement.

The Victorian government is expected to table changes to the Racial and Religious Tolerance Act 2001 later this month. (ABC News)

Complaints could made for conduct in a public or private setting, which is worrying some religious groups who are concerned the laws could be weaponised against religious teachings.

The laws, set to be introduced to state parliament this month, expand protected attribute to include disability, gender identity, sex and sexual orientation.

Family or close friends of a person with a protected attribute would also be covered under the law.

"This is not about the ability for people who disagree to be able to go to court. This is about protecting vulnerable people who, at the moment, are often scared to exist in Victoria,'' Ms Symes said.

Religious groups express both support and concern

Rabbi Gabi Kaltmann, who runs the Ark Centre in Hawthorn has been consulted on the laws and is a big supporter. He's seen his community increasingly living in fear of anti-Semitism.

"I know adults that wear a hat to cover up their Jewishness," he said.

"While it is a comfort that these laws are going to be tightened, it is going to act as a deterrent, ultimately I'd prefer for these laws to not be around, but there is a necessity."

Rabbi Gabi Kaltmann from the Ark Centre synagogue in Melbourne's east says expanded anti-vilification laws are a necessity. (ABC News: Sean Warren)

Changes will also be made to the civil laws, making it easier to pursue legal action for comments made in public only, including the wearing of symbols and waving flags.

The proposed amendments would "clarify that the legal test would be conduct that is likely to incite hatred or other serious emotions in another person — not that the conduct actually incited those emotions" the government says.

The Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne said it abhorred vilification of any kind but had concerns about religious freedom.

"Laws seeking to address genuine vilification should avoid ambiguous or imprecise language that creates confusion or that ends up causing more division in the community,'' a spokesman said.

"Attempts to lower the threshold of what constitutes vilification must not stifle genuine discussion and acts done in good faith, particularly the sharing of religious beliefs."

The Islamic Council of Victoria, while broadly welcoming the reforms, also wants precise, clear protection for religious teachings which may be in competition with some protected attributes.

"Our imams, our religious teachers, will talk about sexuality and gender and family and things like that, and they should be able to continue to teach that without fear of being prosecuted because they're supposedly spreading hate speech,'' ICV president Adel Salman said.

"We want to be satisfied that there are enough protections in the law to prevent false positive prosecutions."

But Mr Salman also welcomed the lowering of the threshold because the laws were more "accessible" which was an important deterrent.

Adel Salman says the Islamic Council of Victoria wants protections in the law to ensure Islamic faith leaders can teach about sexuality, gender and family without fear of prosecution. (Supplied)

"The number one target of Islamophobia are hijabi women of colour. They're women, they're obviously Muslim, and they're of colour ... they should be considered aggravating factors," he said.

"And so the offence for that should be even greater."

The Australian Christian Lobby (ACL) has begun urging MPs to vote against the laws out of concern the laws will be weaponised by activists.

ACL state director Jasmine Yuen denies the group is bigoted, homophobic or transphobic.

"All these protected attributes actually create conflict with the biblical teaching," Ms Yuen said.

"Biblical sexual ethics or biology that we are teaching our kids or preaching at church is about the Bible teaching, it is not something that we are trying to discriminate [with]."

Australian Christian Lobby Victorian director Jasmine Yuen says the Bible does not teach Christians to be discriminatory towards others. (ABC News: Matt Holmes)

Rabbi Kaltmann is more confident the balance is in the law.

"The broadening of these laws is going to make more and more Victorians safe,'' he said.

"Fundamentally, religious people believe that we are all created in the image of God. We are all equal. Why would anyone that consider themselves to be religious not want people to feel safe?"

Laws will be nuanced towards religious teachers, Transgender Victoria says

Transgender Victoria welcomes the proposed expansion of anti-vilification laws because they will provide clarity on what hate is and how to respond to it.

"It's really deep and powerful when we see lawmakers actually acknowledge our right to be the way we are regardless of how we present, or our pronouns, or our names," the organisation's chief executive officer Son Vivienne said.

Transgender Victoria CEO Son Vivienne says the expansion of the state's anti-vilification laws will make people more aware that words can cause harm. (ABC News)

It is "extremely unlikely" that faith leaders would be prosecuted for teaching their religion unless they are inciting hate, Son said.

"There's been a lot of consideration into the nuance and detail of these laws and I think they're going to be tough to prosecute in many instances," they said.

Aside from action through the courts, they said the expanded laws would have a general social impact of making people consider "how words land and how ideas can actually cause harm".

Daddyssillypuppy on November 11st, 2024 at 10:38 UTC »

I can't believe the absolute nerve of all the religious organisations in that article crying out against it because they don't think they can spread their gospel without vilification of people with disabilities, or vilification based on their Sexual orientation, Gender identity, or sex.

GoddyssIncognito on November 11st, 2024 at 07:37 UTC »

Huzzah for Australia! Sending love 💕 🇦🇺💕

Max_E_Mas on November 11st, 2024 at 05:34 UTC »

Anyone got any suggestions on how to get to Australia on the cheap? Asking for my gay friend who I see in the mirror