Image: Photo: Pandekate/Wikimedia Commons
The Tasmanian government is expanding its exisiting hate crime laws, allowing judges to hand down stronger penalties for prejudice and hate-motivated crimes.
The nation-leading provisions were unanimously passed in the Lower House on Thursday following recommendations from the Sentencing Advisory Council in May last year.
Prior to this legislation, Tasmania only recognised hate crimes motivated by racism, the only state or territory to in the country to do so. These new provisions will alter the 1997 Sentencing Act, extending the potential for stronger penalties in relation to a range of other attributes, including sexual orientation and gender identity.
“Every single Tasmanian deserves to be treated with respect, no matter who they are or where they come from,” said Attorney-General and Minister for Justice, Corrections and Rehabilitation, Guy Barnett.
“I cannot emphasise more strongly, there is no place in our modern society for any type of crime, let alone crimes motivated by prejudice, bias or hate.”
Disability, age, and religious beliefs are some of the other factors that could be recognised as contributing to prejudicial or hateful motivation.
A new section, ensuring a court must take into account whether a victim was targeted due to vulnerability or personal circumstances, is also set to be added.
Advocacy groups have welcomed the news, and called for more police training in identifying hate-motivated crime.
“Unanimous support in Parliament for these provisions sends the message that hate-motivated crimes against LGBTIQA+ Tasmanians are as serious and as unacceptable as other forms of hate crime,” said Equality Tasmania spokesperson, Rodney Croome.
“Too often courts are blind to the hatred behind attacks on LGBTIQA+ people, so we applaud the Government, Labor, the Greens and the independents for supporting the nation-leading provisions that will help courts determine when crimes are motivated by hate and prejudice.”
The provisions are expected to be debated in the Upper House later this month.
Expanded access to coroner reports
Yesterday also saw the unanimous passing of a provision allowing bereaved families access to Coroner’s reports about their loved one’s death.
The issue was raised in 2022 by former Victorian Senator Janet Rice, whose wife, Dr Penny Wheaton, died suddenly and unexpectedly at in Tasmania in 2019.
Rice’s request for a full copy of her wife’s post-mortem report was rejected, with laws at the time allowing only her GP to access the report to explain its contents, before destroying it.
“The fact that not only was she not allowed to give it to me, but then after she had discussed it with me, she had to destroy it, I just found it completely baffling,” Rice told the ABC.
“For me as Penny’s wife, it was just such a slap in the face to not have that shared with me.”
The provision was passed on the anniversary of Dr Wheaton’s death, with Croome congratulating Rice for her advocacy.
“This new provision will ease the burden on bereaved partners and their families,” he said. “Hopefully, it will come as consolation and closure for her family.”
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