00:00Tasmania's diverse community members say they've faced an increase in attacks motivated
00:07by hate.
00:09In response to this, in 2017 then-Premier Peter Gutwine introduced a law change allowing
00:15for hatred on the basis of race to be considered an aggravating factor that could prompt a
00:20harsher sentence.
00:22But since then, racism has never been cited as an aggravating factor in a Tasmanian sentence.
00:29Police say this is because it's too hard to prove racism is a motivation for crimes.
00:35And Tasmania Police concedes this discourages officers from gathering evidence of hatred.
00:41They just want to get through the job, get it reported, get it in the system, move that
00:45case along.
00:46This also means it's hard to track the frequency of hate crimes in Tasmania.
00:51There's no data.
00:52We don't know whether there's been an increase in hate crime or a decrease in hate crime
00:56or if it's just the same.
00:58To fix this problem, the Tasmanian government wants to change the way hate crimes are recognised
01:03in courts.
01:04Instead of having to prove someone was motivated by an inherent hatred of a human characteristic
01:09like race, the proposed law changes would require only that hatred was demonstrated
01:14in the crime.
01:15It's hoped this will ensure evidence of hatred reaches courts so judges can consider it.
01:22The type of hatred that can be considered would also expand to include gender, religion,
01:27sexual orientation and disability.
01:29Experts say law changes by themselves won't prevent hate crimes.
01:34That'll take more education and community awareness.
01:38People are not born hateful.
01:40They grow up in environments that propagate those ideas.
01:45The Tasmanian government wants public feedback about the proposed law changes, which are
01:49on the Department of Justice website.
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