The Allan Labor Government has solidified its commitment to social cohesion by passing the Justice Legislation Amendment (Anti-vilification and Social Cohesion) Bill 2024. This landmark legislation addresses hate speech and vilification, introducing expanded protections and new criminal offences.
These new laws will commence on 20 September 2025 (criminal provisions) and 30 June 2026 (civil provisions), unless proclaimed earlier.
Key areas of reform
The new laws bring transformative changes to Victoria’s legal framework, including:
- Expanded protected attributes: The laws extend protections beyond race and religion to include factors such as disability, gender identity, sex, sex characteristics, and sexual orientation.
- New criminal offences for serious vilification: Serious vilification offences, with penalties of up to five years imprisonment, will be introduced in the Crimes Act 1958 (Vic).
- It will be an offence to incite hatred, serious contempt, revulsion or severe ridicule against another person or group based on their protected attribute.
- It will be an offence to threaten physical harm or property damage against a person or a group based on their protected attribute.
- Strengthened civil protections: The Equal Opportunity Act 2010 (Vic) will be amended to introduce a new civil harm-based protection to restrict hateful public conduct that is directed at a person or group because of their protected attribute. The Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission may issue an order against someone who has found to have contravened the civil protections including orders for an apology or retraction and an order that the person remove material from an online publication.
If you have any concerns or questions regarding these new laws, the team at Emplawyer are ready to help.
