The government plans to push its Combatting Antisemitism, Hate and Extremism Bill 2026 through Parliament on Jan. 20, turning Australia’s speech laws into something that reads more like a psychological test than a criminal code.
The same week that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was praising Iranians “standing up for their human rights,” his government was preparing to criminalize speech at home even when no one’s rights or feelings had actually been touched.
The bill’s centerpiece is a new racial vilification offense. It bans “publicly promoting or inciting hatred” based on race, color, or national or ethnic origin, with penalties of up to five years in prison.
I suggest people interested in this read the existing aussie.zone discussions on this bill as well.
I’ve already seen some misconceptions being thrown out by title-skimming knee-jerking international readers, so one thing to emphasise is that this recent (proposed) bill adds nationality to the list of protected categories (which already included race, religion and ethnicity). For various reasons, it’s reasonable to assume parts of this bill were written with criticism of the ongoing Zionist Regime in mind.
For various reasons, it’s reasonable to assume parts of this bill were written with criticism of the ongoing Zionist Regime in mind.
It’s sure as hell not going to be applied to hated against Chinese, Russians, or Palestinians, that’s for sure.
A friendly reminder, australia is a prison, join your union, get organised
These laws will be used against the left, their reasons for passing them are purely in self interest.
Yes, exactly. Zionism is an inherently intolerant ideology. This law, and worse to come, is where you end up when a society decides we must be tolerant of it and it can’t be criticized. See also the violent crackdown, prosecution, and deportation of anti-genocide protesters in the US.
