Nationals senator Matt Canavan said he would cross the floor today to vote against a tougher framework to proscribe hate groups if the scope wasn’t tightened to avoid capturing offensive speech.
“I don’t like people who preach hate, but I think it depends what you mean by hate. I mean, should it be illegal? Should someone be jailed because they express hate towards me as a politician? No, I don’t think so,” he told ABC radio.
He said inciting violence was already illegal, and if hateful speech could be proven to lead to violence, then it could be captured by existing legislation.
Nationals Senator Matt Canavan.Credit: Dominic Lorrimer
“People deserve to make statements that are political in nature, and if you’re going to restrict that right … it’s got to be a due consideration of what are the proportionate changes that don’t unduly restrict Australians from being able to speak their mind,” he said.
Canavan said he had supported strengthening the law’s ability to penalise people inciting violence, but those new measures had not yet been tested.
“We seem to come back here time and time again to Canberra [and] rush through changes, because certain authorities want more power.
“Then they go away, they don’t really use them much, and then they come back another 12 months [later with] this extra power, and the consequence is fewer and fewer rights for Australians – riding roughshod over our constitutional rights,” he said.
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