{"id":31293,"date":"2025-02-11T05:37:35","date_gmt":"2025-02-11T05:37:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/?p=31293"},"modified":"2025-02-11T05:37:35","modified_gmt":"2025-02-11T05:37:35","slug":"new-laws-strengthen-penalties-for-antisemitism-boost-protection-for-people-attending-places-of-worship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/2025\/02\/11\/new-laws-strengthen-penalties-for-antisemitism-boost-protection-for-people-attending-places-of-worship\/","title":{"rendered":"New laws strengthen penalties for antisemitism, boost protection for people attending places of worship"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The NSW Government will today introduce two bills to protect places of worship and further criminalise Nazi symbols, as part of a crackdown on recent racial hatred and antisemitism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The&nbsp;<em>Crimes Amendment (Places of Worship) Bill 2025<\/em>&nbsp;is part of a package of reforms announced last week to give police additional powers and resources to respond to acts of racial violence and hatred.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The latest proposed changes to the&nbsp;<em>Crimes Act<\/em>&nbsp;create two new offences to ensure people of faith can attend their place of worship in safety:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Intentionally blocking, impeding or hindering a person from accessing or leaving, or attempting to access or leave, a place of worship without a reasonable excuse; and<\/li><li>Harassing, intimidating or threatening a person accessing or leaving, or attempting to access or leave, a place of worship.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The maximum penalty for the new offences is 200 penalty units and\/or two years\u2019 imprisonment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Bill will also amend the&nbsp;<em>Law Enforcement (Powers and Responsibilities) Act 2002<\/em>&nbsp;to authorise a police officer to issue a move on direction to a person who is participating in a demonstration, protest, procession or assembly occurring in or near a place of worship. This would not apply in circumstances where the relevant action is within an authorised public assembly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The&nbsp;<em>Crimes Legislation Amendment (Racial and Religious Hatred) Bill<\/em>&nbsp;also:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Clarifies that graffiti is a \u201cpublic act\u201d for the purposes of the offences of threatening or inciting violence and displaying Nazi symbols;<\/li><li>Provides for tougher sentencing for displaying by public act a Nazi symbol on or near a synagogue, the Jewish Museum or a Jewish school; and<\/li><li>Aggravates sentences when a person\u2019s conduct is partially or wholly driven by hate.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>These reforms provide greater protection to the community against public displays of hate and crimes that may be partially motivated by hate and prejudice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Department of Communities and Justice held targeted consultation on the legislation, including with faith institutions, key legal stakeholders and relevant government agencies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The NSW Government is currently finalising new laws on hate speech.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>NSW Premier Chris Minns said:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cDisgusting acts of antisemitism and intimidation have no place in NSW \u2013 acts designed to divide will not work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cOur package is a strong response to recent antisemitism, but will also protect any person, of any religion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe are sending a clear message that these disgusting attacks have to stop.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Attorney General Michael Daley said:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cPeople of faith have the right to attend their place of worship without fear or obstruction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cBlocking access to a church, mosque, synagogue or other holy building is a completely unacceptable behaviour that has no place in our society. These proposed changes provide strong penalties and expand police powers to ensure people can practice their beliefs in safety.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe NSW Government is also expanding the criminal law to send a clear message that inciting hatred is not just unacceptable, it will soon be criminal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe believe these proposed reforms strike the right balance between protecting people of faith and the community\u2019s right to protest.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The NSW Government will today introduce two bills to protect places of worship and further criminalise Nazi symbols, as part of a crackdown on recent racial hatred and antisemitism. The&nbsp;Crimes Amendment (Places of Worship) Bill 2025&nbsp;is part of a package of reforms announced last week to give police additional powers and resources to respond to &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/2025\/02\/11\/new-laws-strengthen-penalties-for-antisemitism-boost-protection-for-people-attending-places-of-worship\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;New laws strengthen penalties for antisemitism, boost protection for people attending places of worship&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nswnews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31293","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31293"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31293\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31294,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31293\/revisions\/31294"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}