Protect everyone in New South Wales from religious leaders preaching hate
Petitioner:
Dr Barry Reed
| Member:
Piper, Greg
| No. of Signatories:
165
| Date closed:
23/10/2025
To the Speaker and Members of the Legislative Assembly.
Unbelievably, the recently passed NSW Crimes Amendment (Inciting Racial Hatred) Act exempts religious preachers who incite hatred.
The Act is supposed to protect us all by muzzling hate speech, but incredibly has included a legal loophole whereby it does not apply to instances where a preacher's speech quotes from or refers to a religious text.
This gap in the law gives some a legal free pass, and enables them to continue vilifying people and communities, including raising the spectre of inciting violence against us, without any legal redlines to stop them.
Our society's key legal foundation, equality before the law, that the law is enforced against everyone no matter their background, is destroyed by exemptions for people preaching hate under the guise of religious teaching or discussion.
To protect all of the community of New South Wales from preachers inciting hatred, this loophole needs to be closed by amending the Act now.
Recent public acts in New South Wales of vilification and violence underline the urgent need for action by parliamentarians.
We, the undersigned petitioners request the Legislative Assembly to protect us all by removing section 93ZAA(2) from the Crimes Act and to insert legal redlines against religious preachers who incite violence or its threat.
