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An Opportunity Missed? A Constitutional Analysis Of Proposed Reforms To Tasmania's 'Hate Speech' Laws, Joshua Forrester, Augusto Zimmerman, Lorraine Finlay

Law Papers and Journal Articles

The Tasmanian government has proposed reforms to the ‘hate speech’ provisions in the Anti-Discrimination Act 1998 (Tas). However, these reforms are unsatisfactory. They do not address, and in fact compound, the constitutional invalidity of Tasmania’s ‘hate speech’ laws. In this article, we demonstrate that Tasmania’s present ‘hate speech’ laws, like equivalent provisions in other States and Territories, impermissibly infringe the implied freedom of political communication. We also demonstrate that certain proposed reforms further infringe the implied freedom of political communication. We will conclude by proposing elements of a constitutionally valid law against incitement to enmity.