The Tasmanian government is planning to update sentencing legislation so that people who commit crimes motivated by prejudice or hatred are proportionally sentenced. Experts say current legislation does not allow for hate crimes to be easily brought up in Australian courts. The changes have been welcomed, but advocates fear they'll only make a difference if accompanied with improved tools and training for police.
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00:00Tasmania's diverse community members say they've faced an increase in attacks motivated
00:07by hate.
00:09In response to this, in 2017 then-Premier Peter Gutwine introduced a law change allowing
00:15for hatred on the basis of race to be considered an aggravating factor that could prompt a
00:20harsher sentence.
00:22But since then, racism has never been cited as an aggravating factor in a Tasmanian sentence.
00:29Police say this is because it's too hard to prove racism is a motivation for crimes.
00:35And Tasmania Police concedes this discourages officers from gathering evidence of hatred.
00:41They just want to get through the job, get it reported, get it in the system, move that
00:45case along.
00:46This also means it's hard to track the frequency of hate crimes in Tasmania.
00:51There's no data.
00:52We don't know whether there's been an increase in hate crime or a decrease in hate crime
00:56or if it's just the same.
00:58To fix this problem, the Tasmanian government wants to change the way hate crimes are recognised
01:03in courts.
01:04Instead of having to prove someone was motivated by an inherent hatred of a human characteristic
01:09like race, the proposed law changes would require only that hatred was demonstrated
01:14in the crime.
01:15It's hoped this will ensure evidence of hatred reaches courts so judges can consider it.
01:22The type of hatred that can be considered would also expand to include gender, religion,
01:27sexual orientation and disability.
01:29Experts say law changes by themselves won't prevent hate crimes.
01:34That'll take more education and community awareness.
01:38People are not born hateful.
01:40They grow up in environments that propagate those ideas.
01:45The Tasmanian government wants public feedback about the proposed law changes, which are
01:49on the Department of Justice website.