2025-04-02
The Victorian Greens have secured a number of critical changes that help to get the balance right to protect LGBTQIA+ and disabled people against hate speech and provide essential safeguards for marginalised and overpoliced communities.
The Victorian Greens offered the Labor Government a progressive pathway to pass hate speech laws and following constructive negotiations, the Greens have secured critical changes that improve the Bill in line with advice from human rights, legal, faith, multicultural and community stakeholders.
These changes are aimed at providing protections against hate speech while ensuring we have appropriate safeguards to prevent criminalising marginalised and overpoliced communities.
The changes include a requirement for decision makers - like police and the courts - to consider the social, historical and cultural context intended to capture power imbalances between parties in criminal cases. In addition, third-party oversight in criminal prosecutions will be retained, limiting police overreach by requiring police to obtain the DPP’s consent to prosecute.
To ensure that cases are handled fairly and in the public interest, the Bill will also now explicitly specify its purpose to “address systemic injustice and structural oppression,” and to provide protections for people with a protected attribute while promoting “full and equal participation in an open and inclusive democratic society without impeding robust discussion.”
The Greens have secured a narrowing of the scope to the expanded religious exception so that there are clear limitations to prevent the LGBTQIA+ and other marginalised groups from being vilified under the guise of religion.
Victorian Greens MP Gabrielle de Vietri says that the changes secured by the Greens significantly improve the Bill so that we get the balance right and to protect the LGBTQIA+ and disabled communities from hate speech while providing safeguards to prevent police overreach and the criminalisation of already marginalised and overpolicied communities.
Quotes attributable to Greens MP, Gabrielle de Vietri:
“No one should experience hate based on who they love, their race, religion, or if they have a disability and that’s why it’s been so important that we get these laws right.”
“The Greens have long called for protections for LGBTIQA+ and disabled people and have secured critical changes to make sure that these laws do what they’re supposed to. We’ve ensured this bill protects people against hate speech with safeguards in place to prevent these laws from being misused, especially against marginalised and overpoliced communities.”
“We’re pleased that Labor has worked with the Greens to pass a progressive bill instead of caving even further to the Liberals and right wing campaigns on such important laws for our LGBTQIA+ and disabled communities.”
Quote attributable to the Victorian Greens spokesperson for Equality, Aiv Puglielli:
“This is an historic moment for LGBTQIA+ people who have been advocating for the protections to be expanded to protect our community from hate speech for years.”
Quote attributable to the Victorian Greens spokesperson for Multiculturalism and Anti-Racism, and Disability Rights, Anasina Gray-Barberio:
“People with disabilities are disproportionately discriminated against and that’s why it’s crucial that we’ve got laws that protect people with disabilities from hate speech.
“No one should be discriminated against or targeted because of their race. We know that multicultural and First Nations communities are the most impacted by overpolicing and that’s why it’s so important we have these safeguards in place that will prevent these communities from being unfairly targeted.”