Senator Ralph Babet: Free Speech Under Attack with New Laws,

I regret to inform you that today the Senate passed new so called "hate speech" laws that will curtail the ability of Australians to speak their minds.

The bill was sold as being necessary to address antisemitism, but the bill expands the list of protected attributes to include 'sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, intersex status and disability'. What does any of that have to do with antisemitism?

Rather than using existing laws against incitement to crack down on any problems Labor, with the support of the Liberals/Nationals and the Greens, today rammed through the Senate new laws which are so broad, and so vague, that they will create far more problems than they solve.

The new laws are nothing less than an attack on the free speech of ordinary Australians.

While the speech laws may well punish a very small group of extremists, they will also capture everyday Australians, who now run the risk of being criminalised for no more than expressing unpopular political or religious views.

The new laws lower the threshold of prosecution from "intent" to cause harm to "recklessness". Which means you simply have to be reckless with your words, if you are, then you could have committed an offence. Who decides what is reckless?

As sure as night follows day, these new laws will be weaponised by activists to go after people they disagree with.

If you dare to say there are only two genders, you could run the risk of being accused of harming trans people and run the risk of criminalisation.

If you dare suggest that some religions are not peaceful you could run the risk of being prosecuted for stirring up hatred.

If you dare to say that unchecked immigration from this region, or that, is ruining the country, you could run the risk of being pursued.

The result is that people will start self-censoring their own words and thoughts. How can we tolerate such a situation?

If Australians are not free to say what they truly think, then in what sense are Australians free?

Worse, people could be arrested for innocuous social media posts or perhaps opinions expressed over a beer at the pub. This is similar to what we have seen in the UK where laws are now being used to make life a living hell for good people expressing unpopular views.

It was outrageous that Senators were been given just one hour to debate this most important of bills.

The result of today's proceedings is that the free speech of Australians will be greatly diminished. A badly written, rushed and ill-considered bill was almost unanimously approved by Senators more concerned with optics than consequences.

It was a bad bill. It was a rushed bill. It was a bill that had not been adequately scrutinised by the Senate. It was an anti-free speech bill that I did not and could never have supported.

It's to Australia's shame that so many Senators behave as though they are there to rubber stamp legislation rather than to consider it in light of the public interest.

Yours in freedom