Minns Labor Government Rejects Hate Speech Protections for LGBTQ+ People

The Minns Labor Government has rejected key recommendations from its own review, refusing to expand hate speech laws to protect LGBTQ+ people. While inciting hatred based on race will remain a criminal offence, the same harmful acts motivated by sexual orientation, disability, gender identity, and/or religion will remain legal under the Crimes Act.

This comes after the Minns Labor government refused to release the long-awaited review by former Supreme Court judge John Sackar KC for eight months. Following a clash with the upper house, which saw Labor’s John Graham suspended from parliament, the Government released the Sackar Review, along with its rejections, on Tuesday afternoon.

“The Government’s view,” the official Ministerial media release reads, “is that expanding the racial hatred offence to cover other attributes raises complex questions about freedom of expression, freedom of religion, and the consistent application of the criminal law across the community.”

The Community Responds

According to Sackar, by choosing to extend incitement of hatred protections to matters of race and not those of sexual or gender identity, the government was choosing a “hierarchical, two-tier model of protection”. ACON Director of Policy, Strategy and Research Brent Mackie agreed, arguing that safety cannot be selective.

“Over recent years, we have seen a disturbing rise in hate-motivated speech and violence towards our communities,” Mackie said. “By refusing to extend these protections, the Government is ignoring the reality that words can cause real-world harm and exacerbate existing health inequities for our communities. We need comprehensive laws that protect all people in NSW from hate incitement, regardless of their background, faith, sexuality, or gender identity.

“Everyone deserves the right to feel safe, respected, and free from intimidation. By maintaining unequal standards of protection under the guise of freedom of expression and freedom of religion, the Government is failing to uphold that basic right for our communities.”