New Federal Hate Speech Offences and Mandatory Minimum Prison Sentences Enacted

The Albanese government’s hate crimes bill had always been divisive because of the way it was wielded by government during heated public debate about the Gaza genocide. Yet the now passed laws that the attorney general said last year were to curb “the rise of antisemitic and Islamophobic rhetoric”, got a whole lot more socially harmful with the addition of mandatory sentencing.

On introducing the Criminal Code Amendment (Hate Crimes) Bill 2025 in September 2024, AG Mark Dreyfus assured that the laws also served to protect LGBTIQA+ communities, which is a point Greens leader Adam Bandt raised in the House again on Thursday, as he’d been preceded by a barrage of Coalition MPs rising to claim these laws were solely about countering the scourge of antisemitism.

Since November 2024 there’s been a rise in antisemitic crimes on Gadigal land in Sydney and in Naarm-Melbourne, which first featured anti-Israel graffiti and car bombing that were obviously spurred by the Gaza genocide and escalated into messaging that was clearly antisemitic, as well as further arson attacks on cars and buildings, and most significantly the firebombing of a Melbourne synagogue.

Coalition MPs were continuing to posit the antisemitism being rife in the community scenario, despite AFP commissioner Reece Kershaw having last week explained that his agency considers most antisemitic vandalism attacks might be the coordinated work of an overseas actor paying local criminals to commit and none of the then ten charged in relation were motivated by ideology.

The bill that initially served to expand the existing hate crime regime in the Criminal Code Act 1995 (Cth) when debated on Wednesday, passed into law on Thursday with the inclusion of a draconian terrorism and hate crime mandatory minimum sentencing regime, due to a last minute government amendment.

So, the bill that was produced to shield minority groups from prejudice now has the potential to cause serious harm to some of those same communities, and this is all due to federal Labor caving into weekslong Coalition pressure campaign to pass the extra measures, which was given more emphasis due to the escalating so-called antisemitic crime wave.

Strengthening hate crimes

The Hate Crimes Bill initially beefs up two offences within the Criminal Code, so that section 80.2A now contains the offence of advocating force or violence against groups and section 80.2B contains the crime of advocating force or violence against members of groups or close associates, whereas these offences originally criminalised the mere “urging of violence”.

These criminal offences can now be committed in a reckless manner, so the law no longer requires intent, and the target groups, which had included those “distinguished by race, religion, nationality, national or ethnic origin or political opinion”, have now been expanded to include sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, intersex status and disability.

The section 80.2H offence of publicly displaying prohibited Nazi symbols or giving a Nazi salute, section 80.2HA’s crime of publicly displaying a terrorist organisation symbol, and the policing power that allows officers to order a civilian to stop displaying a prohibited symbol contained under section 80.2K, have all had the targeted attributes they apply to, which were race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion or national or social origin, expanded to include sexual orientation, gender identity, intersex status and disability.

Three new hate crime offences have been inserted into the Code. Section 80.2BA contains the new offence of threatening force or violence against groups, new section 80.2BB contains the crime of threatening force or violence against members of groups or close associates and section 80.2BC holds the new offence of advocating damage to or destruction of real property or a motor vehicle.

These three new offences all apply to targeted groups that are “distinguished by race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, intersex status, disability, nationality, national or ethnic origin or political opinion”.

The threshold of the new crimes has been breached if the threat causes the group or members of a group to fear it will be carried out, which leaves the offender liable to up to 5 years in gaol, however if the target not only fears the threat but also if it was carried out that it “would threaten the peace, order and good government of the Commonwealth”, then the maximum increases to 7 years.

Serving time necessitated

In line with the fearmongering of the Dutton opposition, the Albanese government has introduced a mandatory minimum sentencing regime, with its most drastic provision being the mandatory minimum sentence of 6 years imprisonment to be imposed upon individuals convicted of any Criminal Code division 101 terrorism offence or division 102 terrorist organisation crime.

The only exceptions to this rule are the two offences relating to associating with terrorist organisations under section 102.8 of the Code, which now requires that an individual found guilty must spend a mandatory minimum of 12 months in prison.

Any financing terrorism offence under division 103 of the Code now carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 3 years in gaol.

The new offence of advocating force or violence through causing damage to property also carries a mandatory minimum prison sentence of 12 months inside.

And the crimes of publicly displaying prohibited Nazi symbols or terrorist organisation symbols or the giving of the Nazi salute now requires that people have a year of their liberty denied.

A brutal new outlook

“It is vitally important in challenging times to uphold rule of law principles and not adopt measures that risk serious injustice,” said Law Council of Australia president Juliana Warner in a statement on Thursday.

“Under mandatory sentencing, the personal circumstances of the offender are not taken into consideration. This has the potential to disproportionately impact vulnerable groups.”

The number one vulnerable group set to be impinged upon due to the new minimum sentences is the Muslim community as most of the regime applies to terrorism offences, and according to a 24 April 2024 Australian Muslim Advocacy Network (AMAN) briefing note “throughout Australian prosecution history, only one Australian white male has been prosecuted for terrorism”.

AMAN produced the report revealing that the overwhelming majority of people who are charged under federal terrorism offences, many of which carry life imprisonment, are Muslim people.

So, not only did the Coalition insist the hate crime laws were to solely stop antisemitism, but they’ve pushed for a divisive mandatory sentencing regime that for the most part will target Muslims.

AMAN produced the note after the Joint Counter Terrorism Team (JCTT) conducted 13 raids in the Greater Sydney region last April, to ultimately arrest six Muslim teens aged between 14 and 17, over terrorism thought crimes following their friend having stabbed a priest in Wakeley, so some of these kids would be facing a mandatory minimum 6 years for gasbagging about doing bad things.

As the laws were about to pass through the upper house with bipartisan support, as well as an overall rejection from crossbenchers, Senator David Shoebridge told the chamber on Thursday that the bill in its original form had given the entire parliament the opportunity to come together to extinguish racism and intolerance, but instead the debate turned toxic as it contemplated bad laws.

“Labor can’t help themselves, can they? They just can’t help themselves,” said Shoebridge on Thursday. “They keep surrendering time after time. There’s no principle that they won’t sully, and that’s why we’re here with these mandatory minimums.”

“We know mandatory minimums won’t work. We know they’re going to fight against all of the purported intent of this bill,” the Greens justice spokesperson said in ending. “Shame on you both for doing this.”