“Repeated hate slogans could lead a person to be full of hate, and could lead a person to take the matter a step further into violence,” Atalla said. “Australia has no place for hate slogans.”
The terms of reference ask the committee to consider specifically the threat that the phrase “globalise the intifada” and others like it pose to community cohesion, how to prevent the use of phrases that lead to incitement of hatred, and the constitutionality of any bans.
The short time to consider such complex constitutional matters was highly unusual, said Smith, the member for Ballina and Greens MP on the committee.
“I’ve not seen this kind of really condensed timelines on this committee, for example, our committee inquiry into community safety in regional and rural communities has been going for two years,” she said.
The government continues to sit on a report into existing NSW hate speech laws that was handed to the attorney-general in November. Last month the Herald revealed just two charges had come from a controversial new law against the public incitement of racial hatred, with at least one of those charges dropped by prosecutors.
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