Tuesday, 31 March 2026

Bills

Justice Legislation Further Amendment (Miscellaneous) Bill 2025

Sonya KILKENNY, David SOUTHWICK
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Bills

Justice Legislation Further Amendment (Miscellaneous) Bill 2025

Council’s amendments

Message from Council relating to following amendments considered:

1.   Clause 1, page 2, lines 32 to 34 and page 3, lines 1 to 8, omit all words and expressions on these lines.

2.   Part heading preceding clause 76A, omit this heading.

3.   Clause 76A, omit this clause.

4.   Clause 76B, omit this clause.

 Sonya KILKENNY (Carrum – Attorney-General, Minister for Planning) (13:35): I move:

That the amendments be agreed to.

I rise to support this amendment. This amendment is very straightforward. It removes part 8A from the Justice Legislation Further Amendment (Miscellaneous) Bill 2025, which relates to how serious vilification offences are prosecuted. The government supports this amendment because it removes a provision of the bill that has in fact already passed Parliament on 5 March 2026 and has already come into effect on 12 March 2026.

 David SOUTHWICK (Caulfield) (13:36): This is a very important amendment. In fact it is something that we have been advocating for for a long period to ensure that we take away the DPP referral so we can get a prosecution and have the police powers to deal with some of the issues around the hate laws. I am glad that we are here now, but it is a pity that we were not here a lot earlier. We do support this amendment, but I say that if the government had done their work right from the beginning when this bill was first before the house, we would not be here today. I think about the many hateful attacks that have happened in the community in the timeframe that it has taken for the government to actually get their act together to bring this amendment, finally, before the house so that we can move on. I think of how many people have had to deal with hurtful and hateful attacks since then. Hopefully we can see a change and give the police the powers that they have been asking for for a long time and not have the independent umpire in the DPP having to intervene and can ensure the intended consequences of the police being able to do their job. That has not been the case, because this provision has been in there and has been the reason why we have seen such a low prosecution rate when it comes to the hate laws that the government have put forward.

Motion agreed to.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: A message will now be sent to the Legislative Council informing them of the house’s decision.

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