New hate speech legislation being drafted by the Labor government ignores Anglophobic vilification and discriminates against White Australians as it is only intended to protect minorities, an Anglo-Celtic advocacy group says.
The proposed laws will impose criminal penalities for vilification based on race, sexuality, gender, disability and religion, and are being developed by Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus in consultation with a range of minority groups.
While criminal penalties are yet to be set, Communications Minister Michelle Rowland in a Monday Sky News interview refused to rule out prison time for statements such as “fuck the Jews” as chanted by pro-Palestinian protesters outside the Sydney Opera House last year.
British Australian Community president Harry Richardson told Noticer News that the government was disregarding the principle of free speech, and that the new legislation made the “Orwellian Section 18C [of the Racial Discrimination Act] look mild by comparison”.
“The principle of free speech is an Anglo tradition, not commonly found elsewhere. This principle asserts that any citizen has the right to an opinion and the right to express that opinion. The Government should have no right to punish anyone for expressing such opinions,” Mr Richardson said.
“Of course, incitement to violence should always be, and always has been, illegal.
“Therefore, if someone chanted ‘Jews should leave the area from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea’, that would constitute an opinion. If they chanted that Jews should be driven into the sea and killed, that would be incitement which is, and should be, illegal. It is that simple.”
Mr Richardson said it was unfortunate that the country’s multicultural elite was prioritising the protection of minority rights over freedom of speech, and objected to the use of the imprecise phrase “hate speech”, saying hate should be legal unless it violates exisiting incitement laws.
“The new legislation is explicitly intended to protect only minorities. This is discriminatory. And it ignores the fact of Anglophobia – vilification of Australia’s White majority. The legislation ignores the fact that multiculturalism establishes an ethnic hierarchy. Legislation such as this acts to enforce an ethnic hierarchy by subordinating the Anglo-Celtic majority.
“Once again, we see the multicultural establishment trampling over the principle of free speech to the detriment of the majority, in particular the Anglo-Celtic majority who founded the nation.”
Mr Richardson’s comments come after Ms Rowland told Sky News that the government would not tolerate “hatred and abuse on the basis of people’s race or religion”.
“That incident outside the Opera House where people are yelling ‘F the Jews’, would that be subject to this sort of charge?” asked host Andrew Clennell.
“If that satisfied the criteria for hate speech, then this would operate in any scenario,” the Communications Minister responded.
When Clennell asked whether jail time was a potential penalty, she answered: “I cannot reveal that, because we’re under active discussion at the moment”.
🚨The Australian Government is proposing legislation that could criminalise “hate speech.” @MRowlandMP Not ruling out prison time for someone if they say “f*&K the Jews.” pic.twitter.com/IH6hXP4hQG
— MilkBarTV (@TheMilkBarTV) May 27, 2024
Government sources told The Age on Sunday the new laws would cover deliberate acts intended to cause harm and incite violence, and impose criminal rather than civil penalities in order to enhance federal protection for minority groups.
The proposed legislation comes amid ongoing tensions between the Jewish and Muslim communities over the war in Gaza, and both groups have claimed to be suffering from rising anti-Semitism and Islamophobia respectively.
Pro-Palestine student protests have led university leaders to seek guidance from Mr Dreyfus, who is Jewish, on whether phrases such as “intifada” and “from the river to the sea” fall under existing hate speech laws.
Mr Dreyfus has consulted with groups representing minority religious faiths, women, homosexuals, the disabled, non-Whites and Aboriginals, and wrote to representatives earlier this year to inform them stronger protections were on the way.
“The Albanese government is committed to promoting and supporting respect, acceptance and understanding across the Australian community,” Mr Dreyfus told The Age.
“We are committed to protecting the community from those who promote extremism, hatred or seek to incite violence.”
Opposition leader Peter Dutton, who called anti-Semitism a “threat to the Australian achievement, to our democratic way of life, and to civilisation itself” in a visit to a synagogue in Bondi on Saturday, has also called for stronger hate speech laws in recent months.
Shadow attorney-general Michaelia Cash said in January that Labor’s new legislation banning “hate symbols” did not go far enough, arguing they should be reviewed by a “pre-eminient member of the Jewish community” and expanded if deemed necessary to combat anti-Semitism.
A Resolve Political Monitor poll for The Age found that 49% of all voters believed Australia needed “stronger laws to ban hate speech on the basis of religion and faith”, while 28% said no, and 23% were unsure.
57% of Labor voters agreed, compared to 53% of Coalition voters, with 20% each stating they were unsure. Greens voters showed lower support (41%) for faith-based hate speech laws, with a higher number saying they were unsure (31%).
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese vowed to accelerate new hate speech laws in February, including measures to criminalise “doxxing”, after 600 Jewish members of a WhatsApp group had their names and details leaked by anti-Zionist activists.
