The NSWCCL 2025 Annual Dinner will have a keynote address from global best-selling author, journalist and film-maker Antony Loewenstein. He will be speaking to members and friends of the NSWCCL on the topic of ‘Free Speech and Discomfort in a Time of War.’ The Annual Dinner will also be addressed by human rights lawyer and Executive Officer of the Jewish Council of Australia, Sarah Schwartz.

Antony’s latest book, The Palestine Laboratory, is an award-winning and best-selling book that exposes Israel’s military industrial complex and shows how it “battle-tests” its weapons and surveillance on Palestinians before selling them to the world.

The NSWCCL is deeply concerned about the censorship some of our community faces when looking to address some issues publically. The NSWCCL is committed to ensuring we are able to have these conversations and welcome the address as one such occasion. This is particularly important given the actions of the NSW Government.

In February this year, the NSW Minns Labor Government passed laws to criminalise the incitement of racial hatred. The offence carries a maximum penalty for an individual of two years’ imprisonment, fines of up to $11,000, or both, while corporations can face fines of $55,000. Hatred was not defined in the laws. In passing these poorly drafted laws, the NSW Government has improperly suppressed speech. They have also acted against the recommendations of the former Chief Justice Tom Bathurst NSW Law Reform Commission, which warned that hatred is too imprecise and subjective a term for the criminal law. Further, the review made clear they go against the advice of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination which warned that restrictions on freedom of speech should not be “broad or vague”.

The incitement of violence on the basis of race, religious beliefs, sexual orientation, gender identity, intersex status and HIV status was already illegal, as are civil protections against hate speech in the Anti-Discrimination Act, and rightly so. These laws protect our community while not unreasonably burdening free speech.

Quotes attributable to Antony Loewenstein

"We're living in an age in Australia and globally where state and lobby-backed censorship against legitimate criticism of Israel is ramping up.

“Politicians, pro-Israel lobbyists and the media need to understand the difference between discomfort and actual threats of violence or violence itself. In a democratic state, it's acceptable to criticise Israeli or any other nation for its actions, especially if it's engaged in genocide, ethnic cleansing or mass violence.

“Anti-semitism and racism are real and worsening and they must be rejected. Hate crimes are already against the law. There's no need to introduce new laws to protect Israel.

“Are its proponents seriously suggesting that Israel and its supporters are so weak and vulnerable that they can't handle hearing searing criticisms of a foreign state? In my keynote address, I'll be examining this worrying trend since 7 October 2023 and articulate why this censorious atmosphere is enveloping us."

Quotes attributable to Sarah Schwartz

“For nearly two years, Israel has waged a brutal campaign of bombardment, forced displacement, and starvation against over 2 million Palestinians in Gaza. Its leaders have been explicit: they aim to kill or expel the entire population. This is not a conflict — it is genocide.”

“To sustain this atrocity, Israel and its defenders have launched a parallel war on truth. Journalists, doctors, teachers, and protesters have been silenced — fired, arrested, smeared — simply for speaking out.”

“Around the world, our identities as Jews are being twisted into tools of state violence. This grotesque distortion fuels antisemitism — it doesn’t fight it.”

“As human rights lawyers and advocates, we have a duty to speak the truth, to refuse to stay silent in the face of genocide, even when it carries personal risk.”

Quotes attributable to Timothy Roberts, NSWCCL President

“We are looking forward to hearing from Antony and Sarah at our 2025 Annual Dinner.

“Throughout the history of the CCL, we have never been afraid to stand up and speak out in defence of civil liberties. We do so especially when those liberties are under attack.

“Attacks on freedom of speech like those of the Minns Labor Government unreasonably burden free speech and only expand existing divisions in our community.

“In silencing voices in our community, however uncomfortable we may feel at what they have to say, we may silence necessary and important conversations we need to have to heal divisions in our community that hold us all back.”