Australia

Laws sanctioning hate speech or ‘vilification’ on the basis of various protected characteristics are relatively well-established aspects of Australia’s legal landscape. Some such laws criminalise vilifying speech, though significant inconsistencies exist in relation to their enforcement, and there have been almost no successful prosecutions to date. As in many other jurisdictions, the most apparent gap in Australia’s anti-vilification laws is the exclusion of sex-based (or gendered) vilification against women as a category of vilification. This is notwithstanding that such speech is prevalent and no less harmful than other kinds of vilification that are prohibited criminally or civilly.