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Racial Hatred Act 1995

No. 101 of 1995

An Act to prohibit certain conduct involving the hatred of other people on the ground of race, colour or national or ethnic origin, and for related purposes

[Assented to 15 September 1995]

[Date of commencement 13 October 1995]

The Parliament of Australia enacts:

PART 1—PRELIMINARY

Short title

1. This Act may be cited as the Racial Hatred Act 1995.

PART 2—AMENDMENT OF THE RACIAL DISCRIMINATIONACT 1975

Principal Act

2. In this Part, "Principal Act" means the Racial Discrimination Act 19751

Insertion of new Part

3. After Part II of the Principal Act, the following Part is inserted:

"PART IIA—PROHIBITION OF OFFENSIVE BEHAVIOUR BASED
ON RACIAL HATRED

Reason for doing an act

"18B. If:

(a) an act is done for 2 or more reasons; and

    (b) one of the reasons is the race, colour or national or ethnic origin of a person (whether or not it is the dominant reason or a substantial reason for doing the act);

then, for the purposes of this Part, the act is taken to be done because of the person's race, colour or national or ethnic origin.

Offensive behaviour because of race, colour or national or ethnic origin

"18C.(1) It is unlawful for a person to do an act, otherwise than in private, if:

   (a) the act is reasonably likely, in all the circumstances, to offend, insult, humiliate or intimidate another person or a group of people; and

   (b) the act is done because of the race, colour or national or ethnic origin of the other person or of some or all of the people in the group.

    Note: Subsection (1) makes certain acts unlawful. Section 22 allows people to make complaints to the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission about unlawful acts. However, an unlawful act is not necessarily a criminal offence. Section 26 says that this Act does not make it an offence to do an act that is unlawful because of this Part, unless Part IV expressly says that the act is an offence.

"(2) For the purposes of subsection (1), an act is taken not to be done in private if it:

   (a) causes words, sounds, images or writing to be communicated to the public; or

   (b) is done in a public place; or

   (c) is done in the sight or hearing of people who are in a public place.

"(3) In this section:

'public place' includes any place to which the public have access as of right or by invitation, whether express or implied and whether or not a charge is made for admission to the place.

Exemptions

"18D. Section 18C does not render unlawful anything said or done reasonably and in