Asio chief given powers to recommend organisations be proscribed as hate groups under Labor’s new laws | Australian security and counter-terrorism

Australia’s spy boss will be given the power to recommend banning an organization as a hate group under the Labor government’s new religious libel protections.

The government’s draft legislation, published on Tuesday, includes new hate speech and anti-defamation laws, powers to designate groups as formally proscribed organisations, and provisions for the biggest gun buyback scheme since the 1996 Port Arthur massacre.

The neo-Nazi group of the National Socialist Network claimed on Telegram on Tuesday that it would disband before 23:59 on January 18, the day the law will be presented to parliament.

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Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has promised a new hate groups list that would have a lower threshold than the current terrorist organization list and would make it an offense to associate with, recruit, train or provide support to a designated group.

A person found guilty of “intentionally directing” the activities of a listed hate group could face up to 15 years in prison.

Under the draft, the director-general of security, who is also head of the Australian Security Intelligence Agency (Asio), will recommend to the home secretary that an organization be designated as a hate group. The minister would then forward this recommendation to the governor-general for listing.

“The obligation to seek advice from the Director-General of Security is an additional measure to ensure that the new listing framework is robust, accountable and based on advice and intelligence from intelligence and law enforcement agencies,” the bill states.

This also requires the written agreement of the chief prosecutor and a briefing to the opposition leader.

The Minister must be satisfied, on reasonable grounds, that “the organization directly participated in, prepared or planned to participate in, or facilitated conduct constituting a hate crime targeting a person or persons distinguished by race or national or ethnic origin.”

It will also consider whether the organization “advocates conduct that constitutes such a hate crime” and whether listing the organization is “reasonably necessary to prevent social, economic, psychological or physical harm.”

This is a lower threshold than the current list of terrorist organizations, which states that a group must directly or indirectly prepare, plan or assist in the commission of a terrorist act and advocates the commission of a terrorist act.

Under the bill, it would be a crime for an individual to direct the activities of a banned hate group, to be a member of the group, to provide training to, or to provide support or funding to the group; The same restrictions apply to groups currently registered on the higher threshold terrorist list.

The bill states that an individual may be deemed to be a member of a particular hate group if they are affiliated with and support the organisation, even if they have no formal membership arrangement or are based outside Australia.

Anyone who “deliberately” directs the activities of a designated group faces up to 15 years in prison, while anyone who “recklessly” directs the activities of a group to appear on the list faces up to 10 years in prison. Anyone found to have knowingly belonged to a hate group faces seven years in prison.

The bill provides a defense if a person can prove that they “took all reasonable steps to cease membership in the organization as soon as possible” after learning that the organization was on the list. The bill also provides for a prison sentence of up to 15 years if a person intentionally recruits another person to join an illegal group.

The Minister will be able to consider behavior that constitutes hate crime when listing an organization, but the law will not be applied retroactively to groups.

The minister will also have the power, in consultation with the attorney general, to delist organizations to ensure that “organizations are only mentioned insofar as is reasonably necessary to prevent social, economic, psychological or physical harm to the Australian community”.

The National Socialist Network (NSN) said on Telegram that it would “completely disband” along with its joint projects, including the White Australia Party. On Monday, home secretary Tony Burke singled out the NSN and Islamist group Hizb ut Tahrir as targets of the new bill.

On Tuesday, the Executive Council of Australian Jews welcomed the bill, calling it “an important step in the right direction”, but warned there were several key unresolved issues.

Co-CEO Peter Wertheim said the new offense of promoting hatred should be expanded to protect other groups, including LGBTQ+ and disabled communities, while the legislation should also criminalize the “reckless” promotion of racial hatred and criticized the current exemption for quoting religious texts.

“The entire concept of religious immunity for racial hatred is a remnant of outdated thinking… Invoking religion as an excuse to dehumanize and mistreat others simply based on who they are must surely be a thing of the past,” Wertheim said.