The New South Wales (NSW) government’s new commitment to prohibit religious vilification has been criticized as not providing enough protection for religious people.
The NSW Labor government announced on June 28 it would amend the NSW Anti-Discrimination Act 1977 to prohibit religious vilification, which will make it illegal to by a public act (includes any form of communication to the public, verbal and non-verbal), “incite hatred towards, serious contempt for, or severe ridicule of, a person or group of persons, because of their religious belief, affiliation or activity.”
“No one should have to encounter public hate due to their religious beliefs, and it is high time the Anti-Discrimination Act 1977 was changed to reflect this,” NSW Attorney General Michael Daley said in a statement.
“We committed, as an election promise, to introduce legislation making religious vilification unlawful within our first 100 days in office. We are here to make good on our promises and get things done by making this change to the Anti-Discrimination Act.”
NSW Minister for Multiculturalism Steve Kamper said members of the Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, and Sikh faiths have all raised concerns about the growing levels of intolerance towards members of their communities.
Vilification Law Doesn’t Protect People of Faith: Activist
While the amendment looks perfect on the surface, it has drawn harsh criticism from some activists.“Religious vilification doesn’t provide the same protection as discrimination because the bar is much higher,” Mr. Andjelkovic told The Epoch Times on July 3.
He gave a simple example: A Christian goes into a restaurant and decides to make the sign of the cross over his food and say a prayer. The restaurant owner comes and asks that person to leave, citing the reason that the restaurant does not serve Christians.
“That’s discrimination. It’s not vilification because [it’s] not inciting hatred… They’re not causing severe ridicule towards a person of faith,” Mr. Andjelkovic said. “That’s why I’m pushing for the religious anti-discrimination legislation to be introduced and to be enacted because that does provide protection for people.”
New South Wales and South Australia are the only two states in Australia without these protections.
Persistent Efforts With Little Response
Mr. Andjelkovic, who has been active in Sydney’s western suburb of Liverpool, shared his frustration over promoting this grassroots movement, which involves collecting a great number of signatures from the local community.“We’re trying to promote and get support for the religious anti-discrimination act, which has already been reviewed. It’s already been thoroughly investigated. It’s already gone through the whole process that had 12 months,” he said.
“Some great legal minds and some great people from all the religious leaders had input. They reviewed it. They agreed on it. It’s had nine months of review by the Joint Select Committee, the joint parliamentary Select Committee, where they had 194 written submissions, the majority of which were in favour of it.
“In that, almost 20,000 responses to a survey, the majority of which were in favour of it. Four days of live testimony to the committee towards the end of 2020. The majority of those testimonies were in favour of the bill. And then, out of the 14 members voted for it and then got knocked back by the two major parties. That’s just unbelievable.”
In a response to the 23,000 Signature Petition lodged in Parliament, Attorney General Michael Daley said the NSW Labor government will refer the Anti-Discrimination Act to the Law Reform Commission.
“The NSW Government is working with the Law Reform Commission to commence this review of the Act,” Mr. Daley wrote in an email seen by The Epoch Times.
The process will take years, according to Mr. Andjelkovic.
“The Labor Party is offering the Vilification Legislation in lieu of the Anti-Discrimination legislation that was recommended by the joint parliamentary select committee.
Faith Group Calls for More Protection Clauses
While supporting the state government’s move, Falun Dafa, a spiritual practice currently persecuted in China, recommends the state government add more protections similar to the state of Victoria.“We thank the NSW government for this important amendment,” John Deller, a committee member of the Falun Dafa Association of Australia, said.
Mr. Deller said the faith group is looking forward to viewing the Bill and hopes their recommendations regarding harmonizing with important protections in the equivalent Victorian legislation have been included.
“We don’t yet know if NSW [bill] includes that, but most likely it doesn’t.”
The Epoch Times has reached out to the NSW government and the NSW Attorney-General’s Department for comment.