Forty six organisations and individuals, including Redfern Legal Centre, made submissions to the Committee on the effectiveness of the vilification sections found in Division 3A of the Anti-Discrimination Act 1977 (NSW). The inquiry followed a finding that there had been no successful prosecutions of racial vilification in NSW.
The Report referred to RLC’s submission and a number of RLC’s recommendations were incorporated into the final report. The Report recommends the removal of the requirement for the Attorney-General’s consent to prosecutions of instances of serious racial vilification. This acknowledges the serious nature of racial vilification and ensures it is treated in the same manner as other criminal offences.
Further recommendations include allowing the President of the Anti-Discrimination Board to refer complaints of serious racial vilification directly to the NSW Police, and that the 28 day time frame for the President to refer a complaint is too restrictive and should be extended.
Some concerns RLC and others raised over the substantive elements of the law were not incorporated into the recommendations. For example, the Report did not find that the term ‘incite’ was too high of a threshold, nor did it find that racial hate speech should be subject to prosecution without explicit threats of physical harm. RLC contends that amendments to these provisions would provide more effective protection against racial vilification, without unnecessary impediment to freedom of speech.
While the Commonwealth Attorney-General is considering limiting the scope of racial vilification under Commonwealth legislation, it is good news that the NSW Government has received recommendations to strengthen the State’s protections.
Other recommendations welcomed by RLC included:
- Extending protection in quasi-public places;
- Explicitly stating that recklessness is sufficient to establish intention to incite;
- Extending the definition to protect people of a presumed or imputed race;
- Extending the time frame for commencing prosecutions;
- Allowing direct referrals to the Police Force; and
- Requiring members of NSW Police to receive training on the offence.
Read RLC's submission.
