New federal hate speech laws- impact on religious freedom?

Posted on February 1, 2026 
Filed under Australia, Opinion

Associate Professor Neil Foster shares his opinion on the ‘“Hate Speech” laws –

“After the dreadful terrorist incident at Bondi on December 14 2025, where 15 folk from the Jewish community were murdered, the Federal government has introduced new ‘hate speech’ laws at the national level.

Whenever there is a proposal to target ‘hate speech’ there is always a potential danger that unpopular religious views will be caught up in the ban. However, it seems that the recently enacted changes will have little impact on religious freedom in Australia, except where religion is offered as a reason to justify calls for violence against others.

In this post I will try to spell out what the changes are, and why they seem to be a reasonable response to the danger of terrorist violence. …”

He does note that, “Perhaps surprisingly there is no clear definition of ‘hate group’ provided in the amendments.”

– Read it all at Law and Religion Australia.