The Racial and Religious Tolerance Act 2001 is a statute passed by the Parliament of Victoria, Australia during the premiership of Steve Bracks. The Act makes behavior that incites or encourages hatred, serious contempt, revulsion or severe ridicule against another person or group of people because of their race and/or religion unlawful in Victoria The Act criminalises racist graffiti, racist posters, racist stickers, racist comments made in a publication, including the Internet and email, statements at a meeting or at a public rally. The Act explicitly criminalises public behavior – not personal beliefs.
On 17 December 2004, the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal ruled that Christian group Catch the Fire Ministries and pastors Danny Nalliah and Daniel Scot had vilified Muslims at a seminar held in Queensland in March 2002, and in a newsletter and website article authored by the group. Scot is alleged to have claimed that Muslims were terrorists who wanted to take over Australia, and that those who didn't weren't true Muslims. Nalliah publicly condemned the verdict declaring that "We may have lost the battle, but the war is not over. The law has to be removed, there is no question." On 22 June 2005, Judge Michael Higgins of the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal ordered Nalliah and Scot to make a public apology for vilifying Muslims in newspaper advertisements with a value of $68,690. Nalliah and Scot refused, with Nalliah comparing the legislation to "sharia law", calling it a "a foul law" and "invalid", while Mr Scot stated that "You don't compromise truth for fear of jail". On 14 December 2006, the defendants took their case to the Victorian Court of Appeal, which overturned the VCAT decision. On 22 June 2007, the matter was resolved by mediation between the two parties. VCAT published a statement agreed to by both parties which affirmed everyone's rights to "robustly debate religion including the right to criticise the religious belief of another, in a free, open and democratic society".
In September 2017 three prominent members of the far-right United Patriots Front; Blair Cottrell, Neil Erikson and Chris Shortis, were charged with serious religious vilification, among other offenses. They had enacted and made a video of a fake beheading, in order to protest against the building of a mosque in Bendigo. In September that same year they were convicted for inciting serious contempt of Muslims, and each was fined $2,000. Cottrell lodged an appeal, applying for his case to be heard in the High Court of Australia and arguing that he had been charged under an "invalid law". This was thrown out in February 2019, and he tried to have the matter heard in the Supreme Court of Victoria. The district court judge ruled that there were matters to be decided in her court, such as his intentions in making the video, before the case could proceed to a higher court, and set a date for the appeal to be heard in the county court. The county court dismissed Cottrell’s appeal in December 2019. The judge also said: “even if the ends were political, the means remain vilifying. Having a political end is not a defence to the charge.“
Criticism
Former state shadow Attorney generalAndrew McIntosh announced prior to the 2006 election that the Liberal Party would repeal the religious section of the "fundamentally flawed" Act. In January 2006, nineteen Christian leaders from Melbourne's largest churches wrote to the premier requesting the removal of the civil provisions in the act, claiming that aspects of the religious vilification law undermines multiculturalism.
