Anti-Discrimination Amendment Bill 2014: NT pre-empts Federal Racial Villification Laws
Friday 29 August 2014 @ 12.31 p.m. | Crime | Legal Research
The NT Parliament, in its current sitting session, has introduced an amendment to the Anti-Discrimination Act 1992, through a private members’ bill, to make racial vilification unlawful.
Background to Racial Villification in NT
In the Northern Territory, racial discrimination is unlawful under the Anti-Discrimination Act 1992, in the areas of education, employment, accommodation, goods and services, clubs and insurance and superannuation. For the purposes of the Northern Territory Act, "race" includes colour, nationality, ethnic or national origin, descent or ancestry, and that a person is or has been an immigrant. The Northern Territory Act also makes it unlawful to discriminate against a person on the ground that the person has a relative or associate who is of a particular race.
Purpose Behind the New Bill
As previously reported by TimeBase and stated by Ms Lawrie, the opposition leader, in her introductory speech:
There is confusion at the federal level as to what is planned with federal anti-discrimination legislation, and I want to ensure Territorians are not left unprotected should the federal government proceed with its proposed changes...I believe that sections 18C and 18D of the federal law provide a good model for what could apply in the Northern Territory. I have been genuine in my hope that we can achieve bipartisan support on this matter. That is why I issued a discussion paper on the proposed amendments and consulted Territorians to hear their views directly.
The new NT Bill aims to define racial villification in an historic move for NT jurisprudence. In the consultation, the minister asked the following questions:
- Do you support a proposal for an amendment to the Northern Territory’s Anti-Discrimination Act to make it unlawful to insight hatred towards, serious contempt for or severe ridicule of a person or groups on the grounds of race?
- How should racial vilification be defined?
- Are fair comments said or done reasonably and in good faith appropriate exemptions to racial vilification?
- Should religious vilification be specifically banned or should a definition be included as ethno-religious?
- Should sanctions be civil, criminal or both?
- How should a complaint be dealt with?
From the consultation it was clear to the Minister that there was support for an appropriate balance between basic human rights and freedom of expression.
Changes Proposed by the Bill
In other Australian jurisdictions, such as New South Wales, the relevant Anti-Discrimination
Act defines race to include ethnic, ethno-religious or national origin.
In contrast, the Northern Territory Act defines race to include the:
Nationality, ethnic or national origin, colour, descent or ancestry of a person, and that a person is or has been an immigrant.
The Bill makes amendments to the NT Anti-Discrimination Act 1992 to ensure that the measures contained within section 18D of the Federal Act to provide a broad exemption from liability for reasonable and good faith, artistic expression, academic work, debate or public commentary, are reflected in the NT Legislation.
The measures contained in the Bill will also re-enact section 18C of the Federal Racial Discrimination Act 1975 despite measures being proposed by private members of the cross bench to reintroduce a private member's bill advocating for its repeal.
According to the minister, the objectives for her bill are:
"extend those objects by prohibiting behaviour which is reasonably likely to offend, insult, humiliate or intimidate another person or group of persons because of their race or religious belief or activity, subject to relevant exemptions. While I welcome the recent comments from the prime minister that he has abandoned plans to repeal section 18C of the federal Racial Discrimination Act. I am concerned that there are some crossbench members of the federal parliament who have indicated they intend to bring forward a private member’s bill to repeal section 18C. Accordingly, the objective of my bill to ensure that Territorians are protected from racial and religious vilification remains valid."
TimeBase is an independent, privately owned Australian legal publisher specialising in the online delivery of accurate, comprehensive and innovative legislation research tools including LawOne and unique Point-in-Time Products.
Sources:
Anti-Discrimination Amendment Bill 2014 as reproduced on TimeBase LawOne
