Time’s running out to reject ‘hate crime’ laws.

Time is running out to tell the Law Commission that proposed ‘hate crime’ laws are a terrible idea. They are entirely unworkable, and they’d be weaponised to punish unpopular opinions.  

Thousands of Kiwis have already used our easy step-by-step submission tool to make a submission to the Law Commission to reject ‘hate crime’ laws. Would you make one now too? 

Reject ‘hate crime’ laws in less than three minutes. 

We fought against ‘hate speech’ laws and won. We fought against an online censorship regime and won. Now, we need to reject ‘hate crime’ laws too. 

What do they have in common? They all sound good at first – who wouldn’t want to combat ‘hatred’? But it doesn’t take long to discover that they’re entirely subjective. They’d open the law up for ideological interpretation and would be weaponised against any views that aren’t the flavour of the month.  

Do you want the Government to regulate emotions? Their focus should be on enforcing the law that already exists, for actions that are already illegal! 

Yesterday, we submitted a 20-page report to the Law Commission outlining all the reasons why we reject ‘hate crime’ laws. We included the risks to free speech in our nation, the vagueness of definitions, and the potential for it to be inconsistently enforced.  

We accept that ‘hatred’ can be a legitimate aggravating factor at sentencing, however the amendments to our laws considered by the Law Commission are unworkable, and we’ve ensured this is clear to them.   

Canada, the UK, and Australia have proven that ‘hate crime’ laws limit civil liberties and only increased polarisation. We should not make the same mistakes in New Zealand.    

Will you partner with us, and thousands of other Kiwis, to ensure subjectivity is not introduced into our laws? 

We have until 5pm tomorrow.  

Submit now. 

There’s strength in numbers. We’ve proven this before, let’s do it again. 

Hannah Clow | FSU Legal Counsel 

Ps. ‘Hate crime’ laws are like ‘hate speech’ laws – they're subjective and will only lead to censorship. They have no place in our democracy. Write your submission in less than three minutes here.