What Labour could learn from Australia and New Zealand

I’m just coming to the end of a four-week speaking tour Down Under and have spotted some worrying signs of what our new government might have in store for us, particularly on the free speech front. During its six years in power, the Labour party in New Zealand tried to criminalise ‘hate speech’ against minority groups, and Australia’s Labor government has announced it will bring forward legislation to strengthen laws against speech that incites hatred in relation to race, religion, sexual orientation and transgender identity.

Will Keir Starmer do likewise? In England and Wales, it’s already a criminal offence to stir up hatred on the basis of a person’s race, religion or sexual orientation, although Nicola Sturgeon went further. The Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act expanded that list to include disability, transgender identity, variations in sexual characteristics and age.

The Labour manifesto promised to deliver a ‘full trans-inclusive ban on conversion practices’

In its manifesto, Labour said it would make all hate crimes ‘aggravated offences’. At present, only crimes motivated by hostility to a victim’s race or religion are ‘aggravated’ and so punished with higher sentences. Labour proposes to extend that list to include sexual orientation, disability and transgender identity. To date, it has not pledged to make stirring up hatred against people on the basis of disability and transgender identity a criminal offence. But judging from the behaviour of their counterparts Down Under, I wouldn’t be surprised.

Another clue as to what restrictions Keir Starmer might impose on free speech is the ban on conversion therapy, which already applies in New Zealand and three of Australia’s six states. The Labour manifesto promised to deliver a ‘full trans-inclusive ban on conversion practices’, which sounds a lot like the ban enacted in 2021 in Victoria, the most left-wing Australian state.