Sydney MP Alex Greenwich has criticised the NSW Labor government’s proposed hate speech laws for failing to protect the LGBTIQ+ community, arguing that the exclusion of queer people sets a “dangerous precedent” by allowing greater punishments without encompassing all vulnerable groups.
The changes, announced on Thursday by NSW Premier Chris Minns, will alter 93Z of the state’s Crimes Act to give police additional powers to respond to racially motivated attacks and protests outside places of worship, in response to a rise in antisemitic hate, including graffiti and firebombings.
Under the proposed changes, to be introduced in the first fortnight of parliament, which starts on Tuesday, those found guilty of incitement of racial, not religious, hatred would face up to two years’ jail.
“I want to send an unambiguous message to racists and antisemites, to those in our community who are attempting to divide Australia against Australia,” said Minns.
However, the changes exclude protections for LGBTIQ+ groups, as Minns said larger changes to the state’s anti-vilification legislation would be too difficult to achieve quickly.
“I made a decision that I wanted to progress hate speech laws, as it applies to race, immediately,” he said.
Independent MP Alex Greenwich said that while reform was needed to protect groups, it needed to ensure that it did not discriminate.
“The government needs to act with urgency here but do it properly,” Greenwich told Gay Sydney News.
“Hate doesn’t discriminate so neither should our laws as a result.”
Greenwich said that while LGBTIQ+ groups were currently covered under section 93Z of the Crimes Act, any new protections should apply to all groups in that section.
“The same groups targeting Jewish people target LGBTIQ+ groups, I know that first hand,” he said.
“The Australian Federal Police arrested a person who made death threats to me who had also made death threats to Jewish leaders.”
Greenwich said while the state was witnessing a rise in antisemitism that was frightening, it was also seeing a rise in hate against the LGBTIQ+ community, particularly trans people.
“When you legislate you need to have consistency,” he said.
“The government is setting a dangerous precedent by singling one group out and sending a message that incitement against LGBTIQ+ groups isn’t as serious.”
Rainbow Labor NSW also pushed for Minns to ensure any changes to the law included all communities.
“The changes to section 93Z should not be limited to one group,” the group posted on Instagram.
“Hate is not specific to any one community and the law must reflect that.”
Activist group Equality Australia backed calls for minority groups to be included in the new legislation.
“Our laws should protect everyone against hate and bigotry regardless of who they are, where they come from or what they believe,” said Equality Australia chief executive officer Anna Brown.
Like Greenwich, Brown acknowledged the urgency of addressing the rise in antisemitic hatred towards Jewish people, but said Minns needed to leave the door open to extending the protections to queer people.
“LGBTIQ+ people experience violence and hatred in unique and severe ways,” Brown said.
“Each day I worry about the next bashing victim or the next community event that has been intimidated into being cancelled.”
Minns appeared to suggest that the government would eventually look at further changes, but did not commit to them.
“I want to make it clear today that the government is considering changes to … religious hatred in NSW as well, we’re not ruling it out,” he said.
It’s not the first time the LGBTIQ+ community has been left out of hate crimes law changes, with the federal government’s newly passed laws labelled a “missed” opportunity by Equality Australia.
In the first parliamentary sitting week of this year, the federal Labor government pushed through new laws which will create new offences for threatening force or violence against people based on their race, religion, nationality, sex, sexual orientation and more.
The laws will impose minimum jail sentences between 12 months for less serious hate crimes, such as giving a Nazi salute in public, and six years for those found guilty of terrorism offences.
The decision was at odds with Labor’s party platform, which opposes mandatory sentencing. Mandatory sentencing requires that people convicted of certain crimes serve a predefined term of imprisonment, removing the discretion of judges to offer alternatives like good behaviour bonds or home detention.
Some 11th-hour amendments to the bill led to some vulnerable communities not being adequately protected against hate speech, Equality Australia said.
“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,” said Brown.
LGBTIQ+ people will still have no protections against people who target them by promoting hate, serious contempt or severe ridicule, she said.
“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,” she said.
Gay Sydney News reporter