The Victorian government has announced a new Anti-Hate taskforce and an increase in police powers to enforce tougher protest laws rolled out earlier this year in response to a recent series of anti-semitic attacks in Melbourne.

Guest host Justine Costigan is joined by Sarah Schwartz, Legal Director at the Human Rights Law Centre, to discuss the proposed changes, their impacts on the right to peaceful protest, and whether the new laws would address the racial violence that that they are seeking to prevent.

“It’s really important for us not to conflate acts of racial violence … with peaceful protest. None of the measures that the Victorian government has proposed would have prevented or done anything to stop [the recent attacks]. Instead, these measures are really targeting peaceful protest.”

Photo credit: supplied.