Wednesday, 8 June 2022

Legal and Social Issues Committee

Inquiry into Anti-Vilification Protections

Mr FOWLES (Burwood) (10:28): I rise to contribute on the report by the Legal and Social Issues Committee on the inquiry into anti-vilification protections. This is of course a report that has been much referred to this week in the course of the debate around the Nazi symbol prohibition, but there is more to this report. The inquiry and the report demonstrate in fact that prejudice and hate, sadly, in Victoria are prevalent and our anti-vilification laws have in fact been failing our community. The committee tabled 36 recommendations in total to government.

The committee heard throughout the inquiry that vilification takes many forms and is experienced differently by and within communities. Despite Victoria’s multiculturalism and diversity in religious observance, in racial and religious discrimination, harassment and vilification, all that remains prevalent, sadly, throughout the state. As vilification is broadly under-reported by those who experience it there is limited quantitative data to establish a really accurate picture of hate in Victoria. But the committee did receive evidence of numerous examples of significant public vilification incidents. There have been incidents in my own electorate with the Hakenkreuz being graffitied in a range of spaces from bicycle paths to fences and on signs. I do not for a second pretend that every single one of those people engaging in that conduct is a person filled with hate. I think quite often it is likely that is merely attention seeking or simply using a symbol they understand will offend without necessarily understanding why it offends. That is why it was so important yesterday to get the tale of my constituent into the parliamentary record, because I think we need to always acknowledge those survivors of the Holocaust and do our level best to preserve their memories and their testimony and make sure that people understand that testimony so they can really understand the depth of the responses that people have to that particular symbol.

But the committee report referred also to the discrimination, harassment and vilification that, sadly, is commonplace for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, most of which stems from systemic racism, and it has resulted in intergenerational trauma, systemic and structural exclusion and serious, multiple and ongoing harms. In addition to that, African Australians have been exposed to an increase in racially motivated prejudice and discrimination in Victoria in recent years, mostly due to an obsession by the Murdoch press and a political focus by those opposite on this confected issue of African gangs. Sadly Islamophobia too is on the rise in the community, with a reported increase in incidents following the Christchurch terror attack and the political rhetoric impacting broader social attitudes towards the Muslim community. Antisemitism is also a growing problem, including in schools and in online environments, where there has been a rise in this right-wing extremist discourse. The committee also notably received evidence about the increase in racial threats and vilification throughout the coronavirus pandemic, particularly directed at Asian communities in Victoria as well as towards some members of the Jewish community.

The committee’s report is broad. It also covers vilification that targeted other groups who are not currently protected under the Racial and Religious Tolerance Act 2001, including the LGBTIQA+ community, women and people with a disability. Vilification towards people who identify as LGBTIQA+ is pervasive, and it takes many forms. For example, the Australian Human Rights Commission reported in 2015 that nearly 75 per cent of LGBTI people in Australia have experienced bullying, harassment or violence on the basis of their sexual orientation or gender identity. Gendered hate speech and vilification of women is also commonplace in Australia and a normalised feature, sadly, of everyday public life, most especially in online environments. This report, even though we have focused on one element of it this week, was very, very wideranging, and I thank and commend the authors of the report and the chair, who is in the chamber at the moment, for their work in bringing the first of the recommendations forward—and, I know, the subsequent work.

I did just want to close by reiterating some of my comments yesterday about the nomenclature we use in relation to the Nazi symbol. I have heard many members in this place continuing to refer to that symbol as the Nazi swastika or the swastika, and I just remind members that ‘swastika’ is a Hindi word. It comes from the Sanskrit language. It is not the right term to be using to describe that symbol. The correct term is ‘Hakenkreuz’, and it matters because the origin of that word is a word of beauty and peace, and it was viciously turned around by the Nazi regime. We need to do our bit against that.