Its worth adding that this proposed legislation has now been abandoned by Labor thanks to the Greens saying they would not support the bill in its current format without provisions for genuine protest - the Liberal party also said they’d not support it, for very different reasons. Either way, it’s dead.
From video description:
UPDATE: The Government has since announced that it is abandoning its proposed law about promoting and inciting racial hatred. As this analysis now only has educational, not practical relevance, the comments have been closed.
This video is about one part of the Combatting Antisemitism, Hate and Extremism Bill 2026 (Cth) which
will[was to] be introduced and debated in the Australian Parliament on 19 and 20 January 2026.“Promoting and inciting racial hatred”
There must be exclusions for politicians and media, otherwise Hanson, Palmer and Sky News might be in big trouble.
Well, politicians get an automatic exemption for things they say in Parliament.
It’s important the law distinguishes between individuals/groups and legal entities like governments. I have no problem with Jews, but I do have a problem with the Israeli government and the genocide they have committed in Gaza.These laws should protect the former while allowing criticism of the latter.
The most salient point might be that the way it’s currently worded, pointing out that Israel is committing genocide could get you in trouble with this new law (and truth is not a defence) because your statements could reasonably cause hatred towards Israelis.
What are facts and common sense but things that are to be debated and enforced with the rule of law, after all, people feelings are getting hurt by the truth so we have to make it less obvious otherwise these people might look bad.
Israelis are not a race though, they’re just citizens of a country.
So it would not be able to be classified as ‘racial hatred’ and then they would have to pivot to charging that you’re inciting hatred against Jews, which would be much easier to defend. Protesting against Israel is not protesting against Jews - in fact there are a lot of Jews that protest against Israel.Edit - the proposed new laws add ‘nationality’, so my suggested response would not be helpful to avoid arrest/charge.
I agree with others the wording of the proposed legislation is very bad for free speech, restricting or curtailing the ability to protest against the action of governments. Protesters would have to very carefully state their disagreements were against government and government officials and if they ever broadened their placards or slogans (as is very standard for protests) to something like “Against Russian aggression”, or “Stop Israel’s genocide” they could be charged with inciting hate against a nationality. They could fix this by adding ‘govt’ to their placards but the chilling effect will be real and the legislation is an overstep.
What a joke. Thankfully the legislation has now been scrapped.
Israelis are not a race though, they’re just citizens of a country.
The new laws include nationality. (ethnicity is already there)
[note: this point of national origin is first mentioned two minutes into the OP video]
OK well then that’s completely fucked, I’ve edited my original comment to reflect.
The legislation is now thankfully dead though, I dropped a comment at the top of the thread.
What happens when the Russian embassy claims that expressions of support for Ukraine are “Russophobia”, and thus hate speech under the law?
You should probably have actually watched the video
I’m like 90% sure that the recent announcement by the government is that the specific part of the law Professor Twomey covers in this video is no longer proceeding.
Which, if its current form were all that mattered, would be undoubtedly a good thing.
But I’d have liked to see an attempt at making the spirit of this law work, without the risk of criticising genocidal regimes being caught up in it.
