Hate Speech and Freedom of Speech in Australia.

AuthorMeagher, Dan
PositionBook review

Katharine Gelber & Adrienne Stone (eds), Hate Speech and Freedom of Speech in Australia (Federation Press, 2007, ISBN 9781862876538, AUS$49.95, xvii + 238 pages)

The title of this excellent collection of essays hits on something important about hate speech in Australian political and legal culture. 'Hate Speech and Freedom of Speech in Australia' implicitly recognises that the former--whilst clearly a form of speech--is a distinct phenomenon that mostly undercuts rather than promotes the public and personal good said to flow from freedom of speech more generally: truth discovery, self-government and personal autonomy. (1) In other words, to 'get serious about freedom of expression' (2) does not necessarily entail political tolerance of and legal protection for hate speech.

This legal conception of the hate speech/free speech relationship may stem from Australia standing 'somewhat apart from many other jurisdictions with which we share legal and political traditions' (3) in that it 'does not possess an explicit statutory or constitutional free speech protection' (4). And without a judicial Sword of Damocles forever threatening invalidation on free speech grounds, Australia's legal and political landscape has provided fertile ground for the flourishing of hate speech laws. (5) The upshot, as Katharine Gelber points out, is that Australia can move--philosophically and empirically--beyond the standard 'do hate speech laws impermissibly infringe on the free speech principle' aspect of the debate. (6) It is into this more fruitful territory that Hate Speech and Freedom of Speech in Australia takes the reader with a series of thoughtful and informative essays on the historical, cultural, political, legal and even linguistic aspects of hate speech in Australia.

It begins with an introduction by the editors that briefly outlines the content and scope of the book's three parts and also helpfully provides the following definition of hate speech:

[It] is speech or expression which is capable of instilling or inciting hatred of, or prejudice towards, a person or group of people on a specified ground including race, nationality, ethnicity, country of origin, ethno-religious identity, religion, sexuality, gender identity or gender. (7) This gives the reader an idea of the breadth of the hate speech phenomenon and frames the analysis and discussion that is undertaken in each part. In chapter one, Gelber outlines how Australia's free speech context has informed the volume and shape of existing hate speech laws. They now exist in 'every State, the Australian Capital Territory, and federally' (8) and 'in the current political climate moves to repeal such laws altogether are ... extremely unlikely to find purchase'. (9)

That political climate was fundamentally reshaped by the cataclysmic events of 11 September 2001 and the ongoing War on Terror it triggered. It is the prism through which we now view events such as the divisive 2001 federal election campaign, the race riots that erupted on Cronulla Beach in December 2005 and the sustained attacks on multiculturalism. But appreciating the contemporary significance of these events requires that they be placed in a historical context. This is the purpose of Ann Curthoys' excellent chapter on The Volatility of Racism in Australia'. In it she provides a timeline of sorts that charts significant moments in Australia's race relations history. It demonstrates the ebb and flow of racist thinking in Australia but also that those on the 'outside' of Australian society' (10)--the targets of racial hostility--generally, in time, have come to assume their rightful places as accepted...

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