New laws targeting antisemitic graffiti introduced to NSW parliament amid broader hate speech review

ABC NEWS (Australia)

New laws targeting antisemitic graffiti have been introduced to NSW state parliament, as the government continues working on broader hate speech legislation. However, questions remain over who will be covered under the proposed protections.

Transcript

00:00It's been more than two months since Parliament last met, a chance to catch up on all the

00:07news from the break.

00:09I inform the House that the Governor accepted the resignation of the Honourable Joanna Elizabeth

00:14Halen MP as Minister for Transport.

00:18Jo Halen's move to the backbench still a source of regret for Chris Minns.

00:22The truth of the matter is, Mr Speaker, I should have changed the guidelines around

00:25ministerial drivers as soon as we got into Parliament.

00:27Reflecting on the summer, the Premier turned to a far darker chapter, the spate of anti-Semitic

00:33attacks he's described as depraved and shameful.

00:36A holy synagogue defiled by a hateful swastika, a childcare centre deliberately set on fire,

00:44Nazi slogans copied from the darkest pages of history spray-painted across Jewish cars

00:49and Jewish property.

00:51These attacks are a crisis of intolerance, a threat to social cohesion and a direct challenge

00:57to the values we all hold dear.

00:59The Government's introduced new laws to crack down on anti-Semitic graffiti so that courts

01:04can consider it a public act inciting violence.

01:07There'll be a doubling of sentences for displaying a Nazi symbol near a synagogue, Jewish museum

01:12or Jewish school with jail terms of up to two years, and the creation of a new offence

01:17for blocking a place of worship or harassing those coming and going.

01:21One of the key features of the Government's anti-Semitism crackdown is a plan to criminalise

01:26hate speech based on race.

01:28The Parliament has yet to see that proposal and Chris Mins is under pressure to expand it.

01:33Neo-Nazis and other hate-filled groups are targeting LGBTQ people and Jewish people.

01:40Just protecting one is extremely dangerous.

01:43The hate speech laws, and exactly who they'll protect, still a work in progress.

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