ECAJ statement on hate speech reforms and anti-doxxing legislation.

ECAJ co-CEO Peter Wertheim said:

The legis­lat­ive reforms on hate speech announced by the gov­ern­ment today are a step in the right direction but still fall short of the reforms which are needed.

Criminal pro­sec­u­tions will still not be possible for the kind of ugly and menacing behaviour that occurred in October 2023 on the forecourt of the Sydney Opera House when pro­test­ers chanted “F**k the Jews” and other grossly antisemitic slogans. Nor will it be possible to prosecute hate preachers who have called for a “final solution” against “the Jews”, and described Jews col­lect­ively as innately “bloodthirsty”, “treach­er­ous”, “criminals” and “monsters”.

Hopefully the Senate inquiry into the new Bill will highlight these defi­cien­cies and lead to further reforms. What our community has exper­i­enced over the last 12 months should never be allowed to happen again.

The new anti-doxing legis­la­tion is very welcome, and is in line with the calls made by the Executive Council of Aus­trali­an Jewry since February for both criminal penalties and civil redress to be available against this per­ni­cious practice. The new anti-doxing laws will apply pro­spect­ively.

Those who mali­ciously disclosed the personal details of 600 Jewish artists, musicians and writers earlier this year and made them the targets of death threats and dis­crim­in­a­tion at work will have to be dealt with under the existing law, which was not designed spe­cific­ally to address this kind of behaviour. We needed this anti-doxing legis­la­tion long ago.