The Australian government has strengthened hate crimes legislation, bringing in mandatory minimum sentences and creating new offences for threatening force or violence against an expanded list of “targeted groups”.
The Criminal Code Amendment (Hate Crimes) Bill 2025 passed with bipartisan support on Thursday, legislating minimum jail sentences of 12 months for displaying a Nazi or terror organisation symbol or performing a Nazi salute, and six years for terrorism offences.
The Bill expanded existing offences for urging force or violence against groups or members of groups to cover “advocating, counselling and promoting”, broadened the application from a requirement that the person “intended” the force or violence urged would occur to circumstances in which a person is “reckless” as to whether it would occur, and removed an existing “good faith defence”.
Groups “distinguished by sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, intersex status or disability” were also added to the existing race and religion categories, but although the bill outlaws speech calling for violence, it does not cover vilification.
🚨BREAKING: The ‘Hate Speech’ bill has passed through the Senate, with Labor and Liberals delightfully exploiting alleged attacks on the Jewish community to advance their censorship agenda.
41 YES, 6 NO. pic.twitter.com/FKc5xhbPEf
— Australians vs. The Agenda (@ausvstheagenda) February 6, 2025
The Labor government introduced the amendments – which violate national party policy on mandatory sentencing – while under pressure from the Opposition to crackdown on anti-Semitism, following a spate of alleged anti-Semitic attacks across Australia, mainly in Sydney and Melbourne.
The alleged firebombing of a synagogue in Ripponlea, Melbourne, last year is still unsolved, and the Australian Federal Police said last month it foreign actors paying organised crime groups cryptocurrency were behind a series of alleged graffiti, vandalism and car-burning attacks in Sydney’s eastern suburbs.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told Sky News on Thursday he wanted “people who are engaged in anti-Semitism to be held to account, to be charged, to be incarcerated”, and Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus said the bill delivered the “toughest laws Australia has ever had against hate crimes”.
Opposition leader Peter Dutton also celebrated the passing of the Bill, and said: “The Albanese Government was forced to back my calls for tougher penalties and new offences for anti-Semitic attacks – amending their own legislation and supporting the Coalition’s stronger measures.”
Last night, the Albanese Government was forced to back my calls for tougher penalties and new offences for antisemitic attacks—amending their own legislation and supporting the Coalition’s stronger measures.
We have secured:
• Mandatory minimum jail sentences for acts of… pic.twitter.com/1OF76rpq5K
— Peter Dutton (@PeterDutton_MP) February 6, 2025
Mr Dreyfus, who is Jewish and spent 10 days in Israel last month, told The Australian Jewish News: “This bill is a direct response to the shocking rise in anti-Semitism over the past year on our streets, at our schools and in our communities.
“No government has done more to combat the abhorrent and shocking rise in anti-Semitism than this government. The Hate Crimes bill follows our landmark laws which criminalised the public display of Nazi and terrorist organisation symbols, the Nazi salute and doxxing.
“The overwhelming vote in our national parliament sends a clear and unambiguous message that anti-Semitic acts are criminal acts and will not be tolerated.”
The Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) welcomed the enactment of the bill, and said bipartisanship on the issue sent a “powerful and much-needed message of zero tolerance to potential perpetrators of these offences”.
“We have seen too many examples of such behaviour going unpunished, such as the disgraceful antisemitic threats and hatred that featured at the Sydney Opera House steps on 9 October 2023. No one was even charged, let alone convicted,” said ECAJ co-CEO Peter Wertheim.
“More recently there have been similar instances of such behaviour in Sydney and Perth where perpetrators have been convicted and given only a token fine.”
🚨Teal MP Allegra Spender has doubled-down on her condemnation of a sign that said “Destroy Paedo Freaks” because it scared a bunch of transgender people. https://t.co/lnmwurdkcR pic.twitter.com/t01WnyRcnG
— Australians vs. The Agenda (@ausvstheagenda) February 5, 2025
But LGBT advocates said the bill did not go far enough as it fell short of outlawing “serious vilification” as demanded by teal MP Allegra Spender on Wednesday night, risked “over-criminalising vulnerable minorities” and was not broad enough in covering “associates”.
Equality Australia said the Bill was “disappointing and divisive”, and CEO Anna Brown said it should have offered protections for librarians and councillors involved in LGBT events, such as drag queen story hours.
“While we welcome the fact that for the first time LGBTIQ+ people are protected from threats of violence under federal law, the government has missed an opportunity to stamp out all forms of hate speech and in doing so protect vulnerable groups from the real-world violence it spawns,” she said.
“LGBTIQ+ people and other minorities will still have no protections against people who target them by promoting hate, serious contempt or severe ridicule. Outlawing incitement to violence while ignoring the toxic rhetoric and harassment that leads to it is simply putting a Band-Aid on a much bigger wound.”
Ms Spender, the independent Member for Wentworth, failed to garner enough support for an amendment that would have added serious vilification to legislation.
Header image: Left, Anthony Albanese visits the Adass Israel Synagogue in Ripponlea. Right, Peter Dutton visits the Central Synagogue in Sydney last month (Facebook).
