NSW Jewish Board of Deputies backs Minns on hate laws
The Premier emphasised that repealing the laws would send a "toxic message" that hate speech is acceptable
The NSW Jewish Board of Deputies (JBD) has strongly endorsed Premier Chris Minns’ decision to maintain recently passed hate speech laws, despite calls for their repeal following revelations that the Dural caravan incident was a criminal hoax rather than a terrorist plot.
Minns on Thursday defended the laws, emphasising they were created to criminalise the intentional and public incitement of hatred towards individuals or groups based on race.
“While the caravan was part of a criminal conspiracy – and not the plot of a terrorist organisation – it was still appalling racial hatred,” Minns stated. “It targeted the Jewish community. It targeted a racial group to instil terror in our state.”
The Premier emphasised that repealing the laws would send a “toxic message” that hate speech is acceptable. “These laws are very important to maintaining social cohesion,” Minns said.
In a statement later on Thursday, JBD president David Ossip welcomed the Premier’s “strong statement” confirming the government would not repeal the Crimes Amendment (Inciting Racial Hatred) Bill 2025, which was passed by Parliament last month.
“The determination by law enforcement that the spate of attacks which targeted the Jewish community over summer, including the caravan plot, were part of a criminal conspiracy has led some to erroneously dismiss the serious nature of these attacks and the fear, anxiety and terror which these incidents caused,” Ossip said.
Ossip highlighted that the plot “could have only succeeded to the extent it did by exploiting already-strained social cohesion and unprecedented levels of antisemitism in Sydney,” pointing to “hundreds of other incidents” that had occurred.
The JBD statement detailed that recent antisemitic hate speech included “calls for the massacre of Jews, venerated violence or sought to justify violence against Jews and outlined why Jews were uniquely malign and dangerous.”
Responding to free speech concerns, Ossip noted that the laws “only prohibit the most egregious incidents of hate speech which act as a precursor to acts of violence and give rise to fears for one’s personal safety.”
Ossip concluded that the laws would “protect not only the Jewish community, but our society at large,” adding that “serious hate speech against one group doesn’t only endanger the targeted group but threatens society as a whole.”
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