{"id":31515,"date":"2025-02-21T23:06:50","date_gmt":"2025-02-21T23:06:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/?p=31515"},"modified":"2025-02-21T23:06:50","modified_gmt":"2025-02-21T23:06:50","slug":"nsw-government-cracks-down-on-antisemitism-and-other-hatred-as-three-new-bills-pass-parliament","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/2025\/02\/21\/nsw-government-cracks-down-on-antisemitism-and-other-hatred-as-three-new-bills-pass-parliament\/","title":{"rendered":"NSW Government cracks down on antisemitism and other hatred as three new bills pass Parliament"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The Minns Labor Government has passed three new bills to ensure the community is protected from racial hatred, offensive Nazi symbols, and desecration and harassment at places of worship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Government\u2019s package of legislation was developed in response to a series of unacceptable antisemitic attacks that caused community division and fear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The&nbsp;<em>Crimes Legislation Amendment (Racial and Religious Hatred) Bill 2025, Crimes Amendment (Places of Worship) Bill 2025<\/em>, and&nbsp;<em>Crimes Amendment (Inciting Racial Hatred) Bill 2025<\/em>&nbsp;all passed the Parliament overnight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The legislation will create new offences and provide for tougher penalties for existing charges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It will soon be a crime to:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Intentionally block, impede or hinder a person from accessing or leaving, or attempting to access or leave, a place of worship without a reasonable excuse.<\/li><li>Harass, intimidate or threaten a person accessing or leaving, or attempting to access or leave, a place of worship.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Such conduct is punishable by a fine of $22,000 or two years\u2019 imprisonment, or both.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It will also be a crime to intentionally and publicly incite hatred towards another person, or group of people, on the grounds of race \u2013 with an exception for directly referencing religious texts during religious teachings or discussions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The incitement of racial hatred will attract a maximum penalty for an individual of two years\u2019 imprisonment, fines of up to $11,000, or both, while corporations can face fines of $55,000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Our legislation 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 Sydney 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>The laws send a clear message that we take racial hatred and antisemitism seriously, and we are prepared to act quickly and decisively to protect the community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>NSW Premier Chris Minns said:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe Government has acted quickly in response to disgusting acts we have seen in our state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cOur package of legislation is a strong response to recent antisemitism, but it will also protect people of all races.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Attorney General Michael Daley said:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThis package of legislation will protect members of our community in a variety of ways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWhen we drafted these laws, we were mindful of preserving protest rights and freedom of political expression while also ensuring adequate community protection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIn today\u2019s environment, this legislation sends a strong message that hatred will not be tolerated.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Minns Labor Government has passed three new bills to ensure the community is protected from racial hatred, offensive Nazi symbols, and desecration and harassment at places of worship. The Government\u2019s package of legislation was developed in response to a series of unacceptable antisemitic attacks that caused community division and fear. The&nbsp;Crimes Legislation Amendment (Racial &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/2025\/02\/21\/nsw-government-cracks-down-on-antisemitism-and-other-hatred-as-three-new-bills-pass-parliament\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;NSW Government cracks down on antisemitism and other hatred as three new bills pass Parliament&#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-31515","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\/31515","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=31515"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31515\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31516,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31515\/revisions\/31516"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}