Defend Free Speech

The Albanese government is attempting to bring in the most draconian anti-speech laws in Australia’s history, and they plan to rush these new laws through by next Tuesday (20 January 2026). Opposition is growing, but time is running out.


Why these are bad laws

Australia already has "hate speech" laws in the form of 18c of the Racial Discrimination Act. These are civil laws, where the needs to be a specific complaint and the punishment is a forced apology and/or a fine. The proposed new laws will go further by making it a criminal offence to “incite hatred” or “share ideas of hatred” against people from another nation or race, with a penalty of up to five years in jail. This law would apply even if nobody has made a complaint, and irrespective of whether the speech actually caused hate or fear. The old 18c laws were bad enough, but the latest proposal is a dangerous escalation in the war against free speech. Our political and legal class take an expansive and slanted view on what constitutes "hate", and these laws will make debates about immigration dangerous and some political opinions illegal.

The war on free speech

Recent years have seen a steady drumbeat of new anti-speech laws across Australia. The Morrison government introduced penalties for sharing violent content (2019) and then empowered the eSafety Commissioner to regulate what people could post online (2021). The Albanese government has upped the ante further, with laws to ban “hate symbols” (2023), attempted to introduce disinformation laws to remove information they considered false (2024), require age verification for social media (2024), expand incitement laws so that they don’t require intent (2025), and are now attempting to criminalise “hate speech” (2026). All changes have been in one direction — towards less freedom and more censorship. There is already lobbying from some groups for the anti-speech laws to go even further. We need to fight back now.

What can we do?

We have less than one week before these proposals will become law. This is what you can do to help:

  1. Speak up now. Tell your family and friends. Like & share social media posts that are critical of the anti-speech laws.

  2. Contact Liberal and National Party politicians directly. The opposition initially indicated support for the government’s laws, but some brave backbenchers like Alex Antic, Andrew Hastie, Jacinta Price & Matt Canavan have sparked a rebellion. With One Nation now coming out firmly against the anti-speech laws, pressure is mounting on the opposition to find an excuse to say “no”. Contact them and politely let them know what you think. The following links give a complete list of email addresses for Liberal Senators, Liberal MPs, and Nationals politicians.

  3. Write a submission to the inquiry, though note that these submissions are due by 4pm today (15 January 2026). You can submit directly here, or else the Free Speech Union has created this helpful portal to assist with the process.

Time is running out. It's a difficult and unlikely path, but if the Liberals and Nationals can rediscover their backbone then there is still a chance that the legislation could be defeated.