Every person has the right to practice their religion without fear of intimidation or vilification, and to be protected from acts of hate speech, racism and violence. Racist and antisemitic attacks, such as the horrific arson attack on East Melbourne Hebrew Congregation last weekend, should have no place in our community.

However, it is misleading for the Allan Government to use events of racialised violence as the basis for cracking down on peaceful protests. The Human Rights Law Centre says that clamping down on protests and increasing police powers will not protect communities from racism and violence.

The Allan Government is proposing a suite of laws that will have a chilling effect on peaceful protest, including:

• the creation of a new criminal offence for wearing a face covering at peaceful protests, which will see people who wear facemasks for reasons of health, disability status, or religious or cultural reasons subjected to police targeting; and

• a ban on protests outside or within a certain proximity to places of worship, which would give police the power to arrest those peacefully protesting for a genuine non-discriminatory purpose, including survivors of clergy sexual abuse and protests.

International human rights law, as well as our current laws, already place limits on protests which involve intimidation and violence. The Allan Government should be investing in preventative efforts, supporting communities working together to tackle all forms of racism, and implementing the Australian Human Rights Commission’s Anti-Racism Framework to tackle the root causes of racism.

Sarah Schwartz, Legal Director at the Human Rights Law Centre:

“Everyone has the right to worship in safety and without fear. It is misleading for Premier Allan to conflate acts of violence with peaceful protest.

“Misguided police powers and laws banning face coverings at peaceful protests have nothing to do with hate crimes and racism. Instead, these measures divide communities and embolden heavy-handed policing, as shown by the recent violence from police towards protesters in NSW.

“It is deeply disappointing that Premier Allan is jumping on the same reactive law-and-order merry-go-round as NSW Premier Minns, by using acts of racism and violence as a pretext to clamp down on unrelated democratic rights.

“People will not stop taking to the streets on issues they care about, even if the government tries to clamp down on their rights and stifle their voices.

“At times like this we should be able to trust our politicians not to fuel division and panic through misguided and knee-jerk responses, but to take measures to address the root causes of racism and hatred.”

Read the Human Rights Law Centre’s human rights briefing on the proposed anti-protest laws.