Labour coming for free speech after the election
Newshub reports:
ACT leader David Seymour fears for freedom of expression after Jacinda Ardern confirmed plans to beef up hate speech laws if Labour is re-elected to power. …
Ardern confirmed on Thursday that Labour is keen to progress with beefing up hate speech laws if it wins another term in Government.
“We do have within our legislation in New Zealand provision that deal with hate speech, discrimination around people’s identities, but religion hasn’t been included in that. My view is that does need to change,” she said.
“I just think in a modern New Zealand everyone would agree that no one should be discriminated against for their religion and so it makes sense that we add this to the other suite of things we say is just not OK to discriminate people over.”
The Prime Minister is either ignorant of the existing Human Rights Act, or is trying to mislead people.
It is already illegal to discriminate against someone on the basis of “religious belief”. S21(1) of the Human Rights Act 2001 states:
For the purposes of this Act, the prohibited grounds of discrimination are … religious belief
So the PM is misleading people by saying all she wants to do is ban discrimination on the basis of religion. That is already the law.
What Labour wants to do is expand S131(1) which states:
Every person commits an offence and is liable on conviction to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 3 months or to a fine not exceeding $7,000 who, with intent to excite hostility or ill-will against, or bring into contempt or ridicule, any group of persons in New Zealand on the ground of the colour, race, or ethnic or national origins of that group of persons
Now this is the section Labour wants to expand. This is not about discrimination, but about speech that may “ridicule”.
The current law imposes a criminal penalty for speech which targets people on their colour, race or national origins. What they all have in common is that people have no say over them. You can’t choose your skin colour, your race or where you were born.
But your religion is a choice, just as your political opinion is. Both religious belief and political opinion are prohibited areas for discrimination, but that is very different to saying people should face jail time for speech that ridicules them.
I often ridicule the Church of Scientology and Destiny Church. Under Labour’s law change, I could be jailed for doing so.
If someone sets up a religion that proposes the death penalty for homosexuality, then I should be free to attack that religion vigorously.
At the end of the day a religious belief is not vastly different to a political belief. In fact in many countries religious beliefs are strongly intertwined with political opinions. So would Labour also criminalise speech that denigrates a political party?
The fact the Prime Minister has totally misrepresented what her party plans to do should concern people. The Human Rights Act already bans discrimination on religious belief.