Australians convicted of displaying a terrorist symbol in public will spend at least a year in jail, under a new hate speech law passed in Parliament on Thursday.
The Government passed new legislation with the support of the Coalition, after accepting its amendments to mandate prison time for certain offences.
The law also upgrades the penalties for verbal abuse based on race, disability, or sexual orientation.
Here’s what you need to know.
Hate speech
Last year, the Government said it would introduce legislation to create criminal penalties for hate speech, beyond the civil penalties that currently exist.
The legislation outlaws acts “threatening force or violence” against those “distinguished by race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, intersex status, disability, nationality, national or ethnic origin or political opinion”.
Antisemitic attacks
There have been a series of antisemitic attacks on buildings across Australia in recent months.
This includes the firebombing of a synagogue in Melbourne, the burning of a childcare centre in Sydney near a synagogue, and antisemitic graffiti across these cities and Perth.
Last week, police confirmed they were investigating a caravan filled with explosives in Sydney’s north-west, in relation to an alleged planned antisemitic attack.
Amendments
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On Thursday, Labor and the Coalition voted to amend the Government’s bill to introduce mandatory minimum sentences for a range of hate-related crimes.
This is where a person convicted of a crime must serve a specified length of time in jail.
Crimes with mandatory minimum sentences include displayed a Nazi symbol (12 months) and financing terrorism (three years).
Debate
The Government has faced questions over why it agreed to the Coalition’s changes.
Senior Minister Murray Watt said: “There is a very serious problem in the country at the moment around antisemitism, and we think it’s in the community’s interest to act as quickly as possible to pass this legislation”.
The Law Council of Australia said that despite its concern about antisemitism in Australia, the Government should “not adopt measures that risk serious injustice”.
Independent MP Zoe Daniel said introducing mandatory sentencing was an “overreach” of the Parliament’s powers, and voted against the amendment introducing it.
She said the courts should decide punishments, not politicians.
Greens Senator Mehreen Faruqi said that unlike the judicial system, “politicians are not in a position to understand the individual circumstances of each case.”
