Hate speech investigation after Big Banana vandalised

Sharing images of anti-Israel graffiti painted on the Big Banana could fall foul of the government’s hate speech laws, police said, as officers plead for public help to find the alleged vandals.

The famous Coffs Harbour attraction was vandalised with the words “f— Israel” and a Palestine flag at the weekend, prompting police to investigate whether the offence reaches the threshold for the criminal charge of publicly inciting hatred on the grounds of race.

The charge, introduced by the Labor government last year, has led to just two successful convictions since it became available to police in August. Police recently determined a speech given by a known neo-Nazi outside of NSW Parliament did not amount to hate speech.

Police are calling on anyone with dashcam footage from the early hours of Sunday to come forward, Superintendent Joanne Schultz told ABC Coffs Coast radio.

“It’s certainly at the lowest level, it’s graffiti and malicious damage, but at the worst, it could be considered hate speech,” she said.

When asked if that hate speech offence could apply to those sharing the image of the graffiti on social media, Schultz said: “It’s something in the context of the legislation, it is quite broad legislation, so I would encourage people not to post that information, those images.”

If convicted of inciting racial hatred, an individual faces an $11,000 fine, two years’ imprisonment, or both.

The offence was supported by Labor and Jewish groups as a crucial tool to combat antisemitism after a surge in incidents last year, despite criticism from the Law Reform Commission that terms such as “hatred” introduce “imprecision and subjectivity into criminal law”.

The Herald last week revealed a NSW Police review had determined neo-Nazi Joel Davis did not meet the threshold of inciting racial hatred when, at a protest outside state parliament last year, he promoted a conspiracy theory that the Jewish community paid bikies to firebomb synagogues for political gain.

Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon told parliament, in an answer submitted on March 26, that “a subsequent review of the actions of the protesters conducted after the protest identified no offence”.

Police Minister Yasmin Catley said incidents such as the Big Banana graffiti demonstrated why the government has moved to give police stronger powers to respond to “hateful, divisive and inflammatory conduct”.

“The graffiti in Coffs Harbour is appalling and police are investigating,” she said. “Antisemitism is a stain on our community and it will not be tolerated.”

The government is yet to release the findings of former Supreme Court judge John Sackar, KC, who last year conducted a review into existing criminal law protections against hatred, and if they should be widened to protect people against other forms of vilification.

That report was handed to the attorney-general in November, and has remained secret even as a parliamentary inquiry deliberated whether new laws should be introduced to ban the phrase “globalise the intifada”.

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