Submission: Criminal Code Amendment (Hate Crimes) Bill 2024 [Provisions]

In our submission NSWCCL raised concerns that criminal offences should remain a last resort given their impact on freedom of expression and the risk that police will use them to target people in discriminatory ways. 

In our submission NSWCCL raised concerns that criminal offences should remain a last resort given their impact on freedom of expression and the risk that police will use them to target people in discriminatory ways. 

NSWCCL is unequivocally of the view that the law should not criminalise legitimate free speech and protest. The application of the criminal law to any act of
expression involves a substantial limitation on the freedom of expression and religion. Despite the heightened recent focus on potentially inflammatory conduct and the growing prevalence of hateful rhetoric targeting vulnerable communities in Australia, NSWCCL submits that the use of the criminal law should always be a last resort and reserved for the most serious instances of vilification in our community.


To balance and respond to restrictions on freedom of speech, our submission raised the need for the offence of threatening of force or violence against targeted groups to include a public act element. Currently the proposed provisions would criminalise conduct which is not directed to the public at large or to speech which is not made in a public forum.

Finally, this issue has already been inquired into through the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights, the recommendations from this committee should be implemented immediately. 

 

Read our full report here.