The state government has quietly shelved plans to overhaul race hate laws to crack down on violent extremists, in a move condemned by the Labor Opposition and community leaders who pushed for change.
World-first laws criminalising serious racial vilification coupled with a threat of violence, or inciting others to violence, were introduced in NSW in 1989 but have not resulted in a single prosecution.
The laws are bedevilled with procedural difficulties, including a requirement that the Attorney-General consent to a prosecution, and have lower maximum sentences than similar offences. It has led prosecutors to rely on other offences in race hate cases, such as encouraging riot and affray.
The government had promised to fix the laws in 2015 after the Director of Public Prosecutions decided not to lay race hate charges against Ismail al-Wahwah, the Sydney-based leader of fringe political group Hizb-ut Tahrir, over two speeches calling for a “jihad against the Jews”.
Read the full article by Michaela Whitbourn at The Sydney Morning Herald.