By Alastair Lawrie -
OPINION: The NSW Government’s new hate crime laws, announced last Thursday, are a slap in the face to communities across NSW. In particular, my own LGBTIQ+ community.
By introducing a new criminal offence of ‘intentionally inciting racial hatred’ – but only racial hatred – the Government is effectively saying that other forms of hatred are less serious, and do not deserve the same legal response.
Almost half-way into its term, it seems Premier Minns and his government have not been paying enough attention to the growing wave of hatred directed at people because of their sexual orientation, gender identity and sex characteristics.
The past two years have seen neo-Nazis at an anti-trans rally on the steps of the Victorian Parliament, and a riot against LGBTIQ+ protestors in South-West Sydney just days later.
There have been countless extremist rallies outside Drag Story Times, including threats of violence. The ABC was forced to cancel a planned event in the lead-up to last year’s Mardi Gras because of credible death threats against Commonwealth Government employees.
Last year, we also saw repeated attempts by Cumberland City Councillors to ban books simply for depicting the existence of rainbow families, again supported by extremist rallies.
At the same time, there has been a dramatic surge of gang attacks on gay and bisexual men using online dating platforms, in NSW and nation-wide.
I’ve seen this wave of anti-LGBTIQ+ hatred crashing very close to home too.
I was devastated when a local surf life saving club was forced to cancel community events in the wake of threats because it had supported Pride Week. And when neo-Nazi protestors occupied the street outside a local library hosting a Drag Story Time.
Last February, a young man was bashed almost to death in the vicinity of a local gay beat. In October, a homophobic gang attack at my local train station was only stopped by police intervention.
These are all reasons why, as someone who has been out and proud since last century, I have felt the most physically unsafe I’ve ever felt in my life over these two years. And why, despite being an LGBTIQ+ advocate for more than two decades, I’ve only now been forced to take steps to protect myself, including by removing my address from the public electoral roll.
The Government’s decision – that LGBTIQ+ people do not need additional protections against rising prejudice – dangerously disregards the reality our community is living.
As Member for Sydney Alex Greenwich said in response to the government’s choice to exclude us: ‘Protecting one group but not another would be nonsensical, cruel and inappropriate… it sets a dangerous precedent to provide, for the first time, protections for one attribute but not others.’
It’s not only LGBTIQ+ people who will not be protected by the new laws either.
Despite the recent case of Faruqi v Hanson finding some forms of Islamophobia may be considered racial vilification, other types of Islamophobic comments are not. How can we justify extending protections against racist hate speech including anti-semitism, but not ensure Muslim people receive the same protection?
As women continue to die all-too-frequently across the country as a result of violent misogyny, what is the possible rationale for excluding inciting hatred on the basis of sex?
People with disability have also been left out of the current proposal and are still waiting to be protected by the existing Crimes Act offence that makes publicly threatening or inciting violence unlawful – despite the Disability Royal Commission having identified the need for such protections.
The Premier’s excuse for not protecting groups beyond just race is that it would be ‘difficult’, ‘complex’ and ‘take a bit of time’. But that rationale doesn’t stand up to scrutiny.
Creating new incitement offences can be tricky and indeed the NSW Law Reform Commission recommended we shouldn’t do so. It’s a particularly difficult exercise to set an appropriate bar for the types of comments that should be made unlawful.
Nevertheless, the government has decided to make these laws and has determined the scope of the types of speech that will be prohibited. What should be the easy part – deciding who is protected – is where they have come unstuck.
Obviously, given the recent spate of anti-semitic attacks, their inclusion of race is justified. But there is no justification for criminalising inciting racial hatred, while omitting inciting hatred against LGBTIQ+ people, people living with HIV/AIDS, Muslims, women and people with disability.
The good news for the Premier and his government is that this mistake can be readily fixed by expanding the groups protected by the proposed laws. The question is: who will the government decide deserves protection?
Alastair Lawrie is a gay man and has been an LGBTIQ+ advocate for 25 years. As Director of Policy and Advocacy at the Justice and Equity Centre, he works towards fair and effective protections for marginalised groups.
