Western Australia is set to pass new laws targeting neo-Nazis and giving police the power to ban “race hate protests” in response to the Bondi Islamic terrorist attack.
The Labor state government announced on Sunday it would this week introduce legislation targeting protests “likely to promote hate based on factors such as religion, race, disability, gender, sexuality or ethnicity”, in a move Premier Roger Cook said would “ensure social cohesion”.
The proposed new laws will also extend Western Australia’s Nazi symbols ban to symbols of all organisations that are outlawed under Commonwealth legislation, including flags from terrorist organisations, and will ban face coverings “worn in public to intimidate or cause apprehension in others”.
The existing Nazi symbols and salutes ban will also be extended to apply to minors.
Protest permits rejected under the new laws will be appealable at the State Administrative Tribunal, and the government said the bill “strikes a balance between the right to lawful assembly while targeting behaviour that crosses the line into harassment, violence and intimidation”.
Opposition leader Basil Zempilas said he agreed “people should feel safe” despite being yet to see the specifics of the legislation, but Greens MP Sophie McNeill said her party was “deeply concerned” about the police having the “power to decide who has the right to protest”, ABC News reported.
“We’re really worried that there is no oversight to this, no independent scrutiny,” Ms McNeill said.
“These are our most basic, fundamental democratic rights.”
Mr Cook said on Sunday the law reforms were about “building safe and inclusive communities”.
“Giving WA Police the powers to protect Western Australians from hate-fuelled protests in our streets is central to that commitment and ensuring social cohesion,” he said.
“These laws maintain a balance between the preservation of the right to public assembly and banning protests which fuel division and hate in our community.”
Attorney-General Tony Buti said the Bondi massacre had sparked a “rethink” of the state’s laws.
“Demonstrations by groups such as by neo-Nazis, which promote divisiveness and hate must never be acceptable and police should have the power to refuse them,” he said.
“This government wants to ensure the right to peacefully protest is protected, in line with democratic principles and Australia’s Constitution and this legislation strikes the right balance.”
The new legislation comes after a man was charged with a terror offence for allegedly throwing a homemade bomb into a far-left indigenous activist-led anti-Australia protest in Perth on January 26, in what police allege was a “nationalist and racially motivated attack”.
Header image: Left, Roger Cook announcing the new laws on Sunday. Right, at a memorial for the Bondi massacre victims (Facebook).
