Today, the NSWCCL has made a submission to the NSW Government’s inquiry into measures to prohibit slogans that incite hatred. NSWCCL condemns the decision to allow only four weeks over the Christmas and New Year period for public submissions on such a radical proposal as shamefully anti-democratic and reflects a disregard for principles of transparent and responsible governance.

The NSWCCL is concerned about the weaponisation of hatred directed towards vulnerable groups as a political tool to pass legislation which unduly restricts civil liberties and calls for no further criminalisation of speech or thought to be passed into law in NSW. The criminal law alone is not equipped or designed to achieve social cohesion. It is a reactionary and coercive mechanism that should be reserved for the targeted punishment of harmful conduct, and is not effective when used to encourage broad-brushed social change.

Attempts to restrict the use of “globalise the intifada” are divisive as they target and disproportionately impact the Arabic speaking community, Palestinian community, any others who see the phrase as applicable to the causes that interest them, those supporting these communities or related causes. It does not assist social cohesion for the NSW Government to take up and codify a contested meaning in opposition to these communities. The division caused by doing so is only magnified by the inherent injustice of seeking to suppress a phrase that to many members of the NSW community speaks to fighting oppression.

Comments attributable to Timothy Roberts, President NSWCCL 

“In a healthy and functioning democracy, it is normal for individuals and communities to disagree and even in some instances be uncomfortable by the political position of others. It is undemocratic to police political views for the subjective comfort of one group over another. 

“We call on the Minns Government to abandon its persistent and mistaken belief that it can legislate its way to social cohesion. The current approach of proposing frequent and ill-considered legislation that cuts across our democratic rights is only deepening divisions in our community and must come to an end. 

“The Premier has already established he does not have the political leadership to substantially unite our community at this time, we call on him to show he has the leadership and restraint not to also undermine our democracy as well.”