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1
Racial and Religious Offences Bill
RACIAL AND RELIGIOUS
OFFENCES BILL 2001
EXPLANATORY NOTES
GENERAL OUTLINE
Objects of the Legislation
This Bill will amend the Penalties and Sentences Act 1992 by inserting a new section
making racial or religious vilification a circumstance of aggravation in the committing of
an offence.
Reasons for the objectives and how they will be achieved
The primary objective of this legislation is to ensure that those who commit hate
crimes based on racial or religious are punished for not only their actions but for the
motivation behind their actions.
It is in the interests of society for there to be a clear determination that hate crimes are
unacceptable. Many crimes are based on racial and religious hatred and it is the
responsibility of Government to deter such crimes being committed by reinforcing how
socially unacceptable such actions are.
This Bill provides for a Judge to impose an increased penalty of up to three years
when sentencing a person who has committed a crime motivated by racial or religious
hatred.
Alternative Measure to Achieve Objectives
This Bill could attempt to impose penalties for actions that may be construed as
involving or inciting racial or religious vilification without any other punishable crime
having been committed such as the expression of an opinion . However, such a provision
would impede the right to free speech and as such be unacceptably inconsistent with the
rights and liberties of individuals which legislation must have regard to under s 4(2) of
the Legislative Standards Act, 1992.
Administrative cost to Government of implementation
There are no financial implications for Government that would be created by the
amendments contained in this Bill.
Fundamental legislative principles
s 4 of the Legislative Standards Act, 1992 requires Bill to have regard to Fundamental
Legislative Principles. s 4(2) requires that legislation have regard to, inter alia, the rights
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Racial and Religious Offences Bill
and liberties of individuals. The provisions of this Bill either comply with the elements of
this section or the elements are not applicable to the provisions. Therefore, this Bill raises
no issues in relation to Fundamental Legislative Principles as it merely adds an
aggravating circumstance for a Court to have regard to when sentencing an offender for
committing a crime.
Consultation
Consultation has occurred with religious groups and the community at large.
Notes on Provisions
Clause 1 sets out the short title of the Act.
Clause 2 states that the Act amends the Penalties and Sentences Act, 1992.
Clause 3 inserts a new part 9AA. Part 9AA provides that if a person commits an
offence that carries a prison term and racial or religious vilification is involved in that
offence, the Court will consider such vilification as an aggravating circumstance.
Vilification must occur through a public act and includes both the threatening of physical
harm towards a person, group of people or their property as well as inciting others to
threaten such harm. If a person is found guilty of the offence with these circumstances of
aggravation, that person's prison term is to be increased by a maximum of 3 years. The
Court will be required to state the sentence that the person would have received had these
aggravating circumstances not existed. A public act for the purposes of the Bill includes
any form of communication to the public, any conduct observable by the public or the
distribution or dissemination of any material to the public with the knowledge that such
material will promote or express racial or religious hatred.