Main recommendations
Fighting Words A Review of Sedition Laws in Australia (ALRC 104) makes 27 recommendations for reform. Most of these are legislative changes, directed at the Australian Government.
The ALRC’s first recommendation is to remove the term ‘sedition’ from federal criminal law. Given its history, the term ‘sedition’ is much too closely associated in the public mind with punishment of those who criticise the established order. However, the new offences (in s 80.2 of the Criminal Code) sensibly shift the focus away from ‘mere criticism’ to conduct urging others to use force or violence to overthrow the Constitution or governmental authority, interfere in free elections, or to target particular groups within the community. This is really just another form of the longstanding offence of incitement to violence. Continued use of the term ‘sedition’ only confuses the issues.
In the interests of improving and harmonising the laws in this area across Australia , the Australian Government should also initiate a process through the Standing Committee of Attorneys-General (SCAG) to remove the term ‘sedition from state and territory laws.
In the course of this Inquiry, the ALRC came across a large number of old provisions in Part II of the Crimes Act that are related to sedition and treason laws. These include the offences of ‘treachery’ (s 24AA), sabotage (s 24AB), assisting prisoners of war (s 26), unlawful military drills (s 27), interfering with political liberty (s 28), and damaging Commonwealth property (s 29).
All of these provisions are couched in archaic language, and many of them may have been superseded by new and better laws. It was beyond the Inquiry’s Terms of Reference to conduct a systematic review of these provisions. However, the ALRC recommends that the Australian Government initiate a review to determine which of these offences merit retention, modernisation and relocation to the Criminal Code, and which should be abolished because they are redundant or otherwise inappropriate.
Other key recommendations include:
- amending the offences of ‘assisting’ the enemy, to clarify that this refers to material assistance—such as providing arms, funds, personnel or strategic information;
- outright repeal of the outdated ‘unlawful associations’ provisions in the Crimes Act, which have been superseded by more recent laws dealing with terrorist organisations; and
- reviewing some old, related offences—such as ‘treachery’ and ‘sabotage’—to determine whether these should now be repealed or ‘modernised’.