Wednesday, 18 October 2023

 Nina TAYLOR (Albert Park) (09:46): Victoria’s rich cultural diversity is one of our greatest strengths as a state. Hate and violence have no place in our community. That is why we are taking significant steps to protect all Victorians from hateful speech conduct and violence through our anti-vilification reforms. In my new role as Parliamentary Secretary for Justice I had the honour of representing the Attorney-General at three round tables with the multicultural community on our upcoming anti-vilification reforms. Vilification as a whole is a complex issue that requires time and extensive community feedback, especially from those who are most often impacted by it, to get the reforms right. In these consultations we heard about extending the anti-vilification laws beyond race and religion to protect more Victorians; improving criminal anti-vilification protections, which include reviewing maximum penalties for criminal serious vilification offences; and lastly, broader changes to anti-vilification civil protections. I am proud that Victoria was the first state to ban the public display of the Nazi symbol, and we have just passed the bill to ban the vile Nazi salute and related gestures through both houses of Parliament. It was an honour to have the opportunity to hear directly from our vibrant multicultural community on how we can keep Victorians safe and, with their help, eradicate hate crimes from our state.