We can tackle antisemitism without imperilling Australia’s long history of respect for non-violent public protest
It was hardly an ideal environment in which to make major changes to the criminal law. Good reform rarely emerges from high emotion, haste and political horse-trading. And yet these are the conditions under which the government’s new hate speech laws were enacted by the parliament this week. And all before the recently established royal commission on antisemitism and social cohesion has had a chance to even begin its investigations.
We know that two men targeted a Hanukah celebration at Bondi beach, took 15 lives, injured many more and caused deep trauma to Australia’s Jewish community. But so far we don’t know anything about the role “hate speech” may have played in motivating the violence perpetrated by those men, or whether so-called “hate groups” exerted an influence. (Note that Islamic State is already a proscribed terrorist organisation in Australia and no new laws were required to criminalise their activities.)
Luke McNamara is a professor in the faculty of law and justice at the University of NSW and a member of the Centre for Criminology, Law and Justice