16 January 2026
Free Palestine Melbourne rejects Labor’s proposed hate speech bill as a dangerous and anti-democratic measure that will stifle free speech and Palestine activism.
Labor’s bill includes such broad definitions of racial vilification that it would make it difficult and potentially criminal to speak out against Zionism the crimes of a state commiting genocide or to take part in Palestine solidarity activism.
The bill conflates Judaism, Jewish ethnicity and Israeli national identity. That not only ignores the diversity of Jewish political viewpoints but treats legitimate criticism of Israel and Zionism as equivalent to anti-Jewish racism.
Labor plans to enshrine the highly contested IHRA definition of antisemitism in law and give almost unchecked powers to the Antisemitism Envoy – both measures that will be used against Palestine solidarity.
The bill would also hand enormous power to government ministers to ban organisations without procedural fairness and based on retrospectivity.
Labor’s proposal would chill public debate, threatening not only activists but writers and artists. We have just seen this example of anti Palestinian racism and discrimination directed at Palestinian author and academic Dr Randa Abdel Fattah.
The media union, the MEAA, is right when it says the bill “undermines core principles of press freedom and freedom of artistic expression”.
Free Palestine Melbourne has always opposed antisemitism and all forms of racism. Our ranks include Jewish activists. We mourned the massacre at Bondi.
But this bill is not the way to fight antisemitism. Instead of opposing all racism, including that experienced by Indigenous people, by Muslims, migrants and refugees, Labor is proposing authoritarian measures in the name of defending just one group.
The danger is that Labor’s bill, in limiting opposition to genocide, will create the circumstances for an increase in antisemitism.
Opposing Israel’s genocide and Zionism is not antisemitic and not a crime. Labor’s bill would turn that on its head – the bill must be rejected outright.
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