Hate Speech Laws In Australia
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hate speech Hate speech is a term with varied meaning and has no single, consistent definition. It is defined by the ''Cambridge Dictionary'' as "public speech that expresses hate or encourages violence towards a person or group based on something such as ...
laws in
Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...
give redress to someone who is the victim of
discrimination Discrimination is the process of making unfair or prejudicial distinctions between people based on the groups, classes, or other categories to which they belong or are perceived to belong, such as race, gender, age, class, religion, or sex ...
, vilification or
injury Injury is physiological damage to the living tissue of any organism, whether in humans, in other animals, or in plants. Injuries can be caused in many ways, including mechanically with penetration by sharp objects such as teeth or with ...
on grounds that differ from one jurisdiction to another. All Australian jurisdictions give redress when a person is victimised on account of
skin colour Human skin color ranges from the darkest brown to the lightest hues. Differences in skin color among individuals is caused by variation in pigmentation, which is largely the result of genetics (inherited from one's biological parents), and in ...
,
ethnicity An ethnicity or ethnic group is a group of people with shared attributes, which they Collective consciousness, collectively believe to have, and long-term endogamy. Ethnicities share attributes like language, culture, common sets of ancestry, ...
,
national origin National origin is the nation where a person was born, or where that person's ancestors came from. It also includes the diaspora of multi-ethnic states and societies that have a shared sense of common identity identical to that of a nation whil ...
or race. Some jurisdictions also give redress when a person is victimised on account of
religion Religion is a range of social system, social-cultural systems, including designated religious behaviour, behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, religious text, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics in religion, ethics, or ...
,
disability Disability is the experience of any condition that makes it more difficult for a person to do certain activities or have equitable access within a given society. Disabilities may be Cognitive disability, cognitive, Developmental disability, d ...
,
gender identity Gender identity is the personal sense of one's own gender. Gender identity can correlate with a person's assigned sex or can differ from it. In most individuals, the various biological determinants of sex are congruent and consistent with the in ...
,
HIV/AIDS The HIV, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a retrovirus that attacks the immune system. Without treatment, it can lead to a spectrum of conditions including acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). It is a Preventive healthcare, pr ...
status or
sexual orientation Sexual orientation is an enduring personal pattern of romantic attraction or sexual attraction (or a combination of these) to persons of the opposite sex or gender, the same sex or gender, or to both sexes or more than one gender. Patterns ar ...
.


Federal

The ''Racial Discrimination Act 1975'' forbids hate speech on several grounds. The Act makes it "unlawful for a person to do an act, otherwise than in private, if: the act is reasonably likely, in all the circumstances, to offend,
insult An insult is an expression, statement, or behavior that is often deliberately disrespectful, offensive, scornful, or derogatory towards an individual or a group. Insults can be intentional or unintentional, and they often aim to belittle, of ...
, humiliate or intimidate another person or a group of people; and the act is done because of the race, colour or national or ethnic origin of the other person, or of some or all of the people in the group." An aggrieved person can lodge a complaint with the
Australian Human Rights Commission The Australian Human Rights Commission is the national human rights institution of the Commonwealth of Australia, established in 1986 as the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) and renamed in 2008. It is a statutory body fu ...
. If the complaint is validated, the Commission will attempt to conciliate the matter. If the Commission cannot negotiate an agreement which is acceptable to the complainant, the complainant's only redress is through the Federal Court. In 2002, the Federal Court applied the Act in the case of ''Jones v Toben''. The case involved a complaint about a website which contained material that denied
the Holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...
. The Federal Court ruled that the material was a violation of the Act. Section 474.17 of the ''
Criminal Code A criminal code or penal code is a document that compiles all, or a significant amount of, a particular jurisdiction's criminal law. Typically a criminal code will contain offences that are recognised in the jurisdiction, penalties that might ...
'' makes it an offence to use a carriage service such as the
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in a manner which reasonable persons would regard as menacing, harassing or offensive. Federal criminal law, therefore, is available to address racial vilification where the element of threat or harassment is also present, although it does not apply to material that is merely offensive. Following the controversial 2011 '' Eatock v Bolt'' decision convicting right-wing columnist
Andrew Bolt Andrew Bolt (born 26 September 1959) is an Australian conservative social and political commentator. He has worked at the News Corp-owned newspaper company The Herald and Weekly Times (HWT) for many years, for both '' The Herald'' and its succ ...
of violating 18C for his newspaper columns on "fair-skinned aborigines", then-
Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. For example, while the political systems ...
leader
Tony Abbott Anthony John Abbott (; born 4 November 1957) is an Australian former politician who served as the 28th prime minister of Australia from 2013 to 2015. He held office as the leader of the Liberal Party of Australia and was the member of parli ...
campaigned on a promise to repeal 18C of the ''Racial Discrimination Act''. In 2014, after Abbott's election as
Prime Minister of Australia The prime minister of Australia is the head of government of the Commonwealth of Australia. The prime minister is the chair of the Cabinet of Australia and thus the head of the Australian Government, federal executive government. Under the pr ...
, then-
Attorney-General In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general (: attorneys general) or attorney-general (AG or Atty.-Gen) is the main legal advisor to the government. In some jurisdictions, attorneys general also have executive responsibility for law enf ...
George Brandis George Henry Brandis (born 22 June 1957) is an Australian former politician. He was a Australian Senate, Senator for Queensland from 2000 to 2018, representing the Liberal Party of Australia, Liberal Party, and was a Cabinet (Australia), cabin ...
put forth a bill which would have significantly weakened 18C but not repealed it entirely. The measure to weaken 18C failed, primarily due to extensive lobbying in favour of 18C from Australia's Jewish community.


Human Rights and Anti-Discrimination Bill 2012

In 2012, under the Gillard government, then-Attorney-General Nicola Roxon proposed th
Human Rights and Anti-Discrimination Bill 2012
which would have made it illegal to discriminate on the basis of age, breastfeeding, disability, family responsibilities, gender identity, immigrant status, industrial history, marital or relationship status, medical history, nationality or citizenship, political opinion, potential pregnancy, pregnancy, race, religion, sex, sexual orientation or social origin. Critics argued the law was too restrictive and would shift the burden of proof to the person accused of discrimination. While this proposed law was broadly supported by the
Australian Human Rights Commission The Australian Human Rights Commission is the national human rights institution of the Commonwealth of Australia, established in 1986 as the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) and renamed in 2008. It is a statutory body fu ...
, many Australian
human rights Human rights are universally recognized Morality, moral principles or Social norm, norms that establish standards of human behavior and are often protected by both Municipal law, national and international laws. These rights are considered ...
organisations and the
Australian Greens The Australian Greens, commonly referred to simply as the Greens, are a Left-wing politics, left-wing green party, green Australian List of political parties in Australia, political party. As of 2025, the Greens are the third largest politica ...
(who opined that the proposed law did not go far enough), it was narrowly defeated in Parliament.


Australian Capital Territory

The ''Discrimination Act 1991'' is similar to the law in New South Wales. In 2016 the law was amended to include a proscription of actions inciting hatred toward, revulsion of, serious contempt for, or severe ridicule of a person or group of people on the ground of any of the following(a) disability; (b) gender identity; (c) HIV/AIDS status; (d) race; (e) religious conviction; (f) sexuality. Prior to the passage of these amendments, religion in particular was not included.


New South Wales

In 1989, by an amendment to the ''Anti-Discrimination Act 1977'',
New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...
became the first state to make it unlawful "for a person, by a public act, to incite hatred towards, serious contempt for, or severe ridicule of, a person or group of persons on the ground of the race of the person or members of the group". The amendment also created a criminal offence for inciting hatred, contempt or severe ridicule towards a person or group on the grounds of race by threatening physical harm (towards people or their property) or inciting others to threaten such harm. "Homosexual vilification" is also prohibited under the Act. Prosecution of the offence of serious vilification requires consent from the Attorney General of New South Wales and carries a maximum penalty of a $10,000
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or 6 months
imprisonment Imprisonment or incarceration is the restraint of a person's liberty for any cause whatsoever, whether by authority of the government, or by a person acting without such authority. In the latter case it is considered " false imprisonment". Impri ...
for an individual—$100,000 for a corporation. An offence has not yet been prosecuted under this law. As of 1994, the Act has had various setbacks in its process to handle complaints, such as complaints not being proceeded with due to the lack of evidence in cases and those pursuing the act of discrimination losing interest in their own complaint or settling out of court under
non-disclosure agreement A non-disclosure agreement (NDA), also known as a confidentiality agreement (CA), confidential disclosure agreement (CDA), proprietary information agreement (PIA), or secrecy agreement (SA), is a legal contract or part of a contract between at le ...
s. Further, due to the nature of discrimination reports in NSW, the Board receives multiple complaints stemming from a single act of vilification and therefore is required to address each complaint separately, which can create dissonance between the resolutions desired by each individual or group. In June 2018, both houses of the
Parliament of New South Wales The Parliament of New South Wales, formally the Legislature of New South Wales, (definition of "The Legislature") is the bicameral legislative body of the Australian state of New South Wales (NSW). It consists of the Monarch, the New South Wa ...
unanimously passed and the
Governor of New South Wales The governor of New South Wales is the representative of the monarch, King Charles III, in the state of New South Wales. In an analogous way to the governor-general of Australia, Governor-General of Australia at the national level, the governor ...
signed an urgent bill without amendments called the ''Crimes Amendment (Publicly Threatening and Inciting Violence) Bill 2018'' to repeal the vilification laws within the ''
Anti-Discrimination Act 1977 The New South Wales Anti–Discrimination Act 1977 is an Act of the NSW Parliament, relating to discrimination in employment, the public education system, delivery of goods and services, and other services such as banking, health care, accommo ...
'' and replace it with
criminal In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a State (polity), state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definiti ...
legislation with up to an explicit three-year term of imprisonment. The legislation went into effect on 13 August 2018 - by
proclamation A proclamation (Lat. ''proclamare'', to make public by announcement) is an official declaration issued by a person of authority to make certain announcements known. Proclamations are currently used within the governing framework of some nations ...
on 10 August 2018.


Northern Territory

The ''Anti-Discrimination Act 1992'' prohibits discrimination and harassment in activities associated with education, work, accommodation, services, clubs, and insurance or superannuation.


Queensland

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...
's ''Anti-Discrimination Act 1991'' and amendments create laws that are similar to Tasmania's. In 2001, the Islamic Council of Queensland brought the first action under the Act for victimisation on account of religion. The Islamic Council complained that the respondent Mr. Lamb, a candidate in a federal election, had expressed some unfavourable opinions about
Muslims Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...
in an electioneering pamphlet. Walter Sofronoff, for the Anti-Discrimination Tribunal, dismissed the action on the ground that Mr. Lamb did not intend to incite hatred or contempt but rather wanted to let the electors know his opinions on political matters.


South Australia

The '' Racial Vilification Act 1996'' is similar to the law in New South Wales. In 2002, the Attorney-General's Department released a discussion paper entitled "Proposal for a new law against religious discrimination and vilification". Following many objections, no legislation was enacted.


Tasmania

The ''Anti-Discrimination Act 1998'' prohibits "any conduct which offends, humiliates, intimidates, insults or ridicules another person" on the basis of attributes including race, sexual orientation, religion, gender identity and disability. Section 19 of the Act prohibits anyone from inciting hatred. The Act says: :A person, by a public act, must not incite hatred towards, serious contempt for, or severe ridicule of, a person or a group of persons on the ground of – ::(a) the race of the person or any member of the group; or ::(b) any disability of the person or any member of the group; or ::(c) the sexual orientation or lawful sexual activity of the person or any member of the group; or ::(d) the religious belief or affiliation or religious activity of the person or any member of the group.


Victoria

The ''Racial and Religious Tolerance Act 2001'' makes behaviour that incites or encourages hatred, serious contempt, revulsion or severe ridicule against another person or group of people, because of their race or religion, unlawful in Victoria. The Act went into effect on 1 January 2002. The Act also prohibits racist graffiti, racist posters, racist stickers, racist comments made in a publication, including the Internet and email, statements at a meeting or at a public rally. The Act explicitly applies to public behaviour, not personal beliefs or thoughts. From June 30, 2026 the legislation gets repealed and replaced with a new Anti-Vilification Act.


Western Australia

Unlike other jurisdictions, Western Australian law imposes criminal but not civil sanctions against racial vilification. In Western Australia, the Criminal Code was amended in 1989 to criminalise the possession, publication and display of written or pictorial material that is threatening or abusive with the intention of inciting racial hatred or of harassing a racial group. Penalties range between six months and two years imprisonment. The Western Australian legislation only addresses written or pictorial information—not verbal comments. The emphasis on written material arose in direct response to the racist poster campaigns of the Australian Nationalist Movement in the late 1980s and early 1990s. In 2004, the ''Criminal Code Amendment (Racial Vilification) Act 2004'' was passed, making racial vilification punishable by 14 years imprisonment.


References

{{Racism topics Censorship in Australia
Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...
Anti-discrimination law in Australia