Wednesday, 8 June 2022

Statements on parliamentary committee reports

Legal and Social Issues Committee

Inquiry into Anti-Vilification Protections

Ms CONNOLLY (Tarneit) (10:08): I thought it would be very fitting this week—with Parliament now debating the Summary Offences Amendment (Nazi Symbol Prohibition) Bill 2022, which if passed will mean the public display of Nazi imagery here in Victoria will be banned—to have a read through and talk about the really great work that was undertaken as part of the inquiry into anti-vilification protections, which went ahead and actually made the recommendation that is in the bill that we are debating this week.

This inquiry took a really wide look at Victoria’s framework of anti-discrimination laws with a mind to seeing how those laws could be improved. The committee heard firsthand about the experiences of vilification from a very wide section of the Victorian community. Just yesterday when we were in this place and members were making contributions to the summary offences bill, we heard some really incredible stories—tragic stories—of survival from members here in this house that had family that lived through the Holocaust.

The committee heard firsthand about the experiences of vilification from such a wide section of the Victorian community, and many key themes came through as part of that. Unfortunately the inquiry learned that for many people in our community the effects of vilification, racial or otherwise, were very wide ranging: they impacted on people’s mental health, they made them feel isolated and indeed they made them feel unsafe. What is worse is that more often than not victims felt silenced and unable or unsure of how to step forward with a complaint, which was a really interesting finding because there are many people that I speak to across the very multicultural electorate of Tarneit that have often raised instances and shared experiences where they have been the victim of racial vilification and are unsure what to do. Interestingly enough, a lot of the people that come to me and talk to me about it are there in the moment with their children, and their children also witness and experience that racial vilification. Where their kids are of an age usually between 18 and 25, they feel really aggressive and outraged about this—‘How can this still be happening in this day and age?’—and want to take further action but are unsure how to do that.

What the inquiry found was that people quite often do not feel like they can access anti-vilification services like the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission, and even when they can they do not feel like the system works for them at all. The definition of ‘incitement’ under the act has been found to be highly unsuitable for the challenges of modern vilification settings, such as on social media. This was worse for marginalised folks who fall outside the act, such as members of the LGBTIQ community. In order to counteract this the report made a number of really positive recommendations aimed at strengthening anti-vilification protections for a wide range of communities. Among these recommendations was of course the banning of Nazi imagery here in Victoria, which featured heavily when interacting with members of the Jewish community during this inquiry. I am certainly looking forward to seeing that bill pass the house this week. In addition to this, the report also suggests lowering the threshold for incitement-based vilification as well as introducing a harm-based vilification offence. It also suggests that awareness campaigns and improved school-based education should be considered as part of a wider effort to stamp out vilification.

I would like to acknowledge the work of and thank the Legal and Social Issues Committee as well as the committee secretariat for the work that went into this really important inquiry and the subsequent report. As someone who represents such a diverse community in Melbourne’s western suburbs, these recommendations I know go a long way to help protect the people that I represent on a daily basis from racial vilification and discrimination. I know that my office has been contacted by several constituents over the years, as I have said, who have shared experiences with us in relation to racist and religious vilification, particularly directed at my Muslim community and the broader Indian community at large. I am certainly hoping that, should some of these recommendations go ahead and be implemented, it will make it just that little bit easier to protect people from being unjustly vilified and make it easier for them to seek legal redress.