A new crime of advocating genocide, apparently aimed at the radical Islamic group Hizb ut-Tahrir, will be introduced as part of the Abbott government’s next tranche of counter-terrorism legislation, George Brandis has announced.

“Free speech has no greater advocate than I,” the attorney general wrote in Sydney’s Daily Telegraph. “But advocating extremism or ­violence to achieve political change, or to hurt, threaten, or vilify others, is not a legitimate use of free speech and has no place in our society.”



Citing restrictions on advocating terrorism passed in 2014 to address “the particular threat to our liberty caused by groups such as Hizb ut-Tahrir”, Brandis said “a new crime of advocacy of genocide” would be introduced later this year along with other changes to Australia’s national security laws.



Hizb ut-Tahrir is a fringe Islamic movement with about 300 members that advocates for an esoteric version of the caliphate to be established in Muslim lands.

It has lent rhetorical support to religious war but distanced itself from both Islamic State and the use of violence to achieve its goals.

Its leader in Australia, Ismail al-Wahwah, was referred to the director of public prosecutions in April over two virulently antisemitic speeches.

In one tirade, during last year’s Gaza war, he described Jewish people as “the hidden evil” and called for “a jihad against the Jews”.

The NSW Anti-Discrimination Board said the speech was a “serious breach” of racial vilification laws, but police in August declined to prosecute al-Wahwah, citing a lack of evidence.

Brandis said the episode showed “there are still great community concerns over what [Hizb ut-Tahrir] stand for, and what they stand against”.

The next round of counter-terrorism legislation, likely to come before parliament before the end of the year, is also understood to include changes to the regime of control orders, which allow police to restrict a person’s movements, activities and associations without requiring a criminal conviction.

The government has previously raised Hizb ut-Tahrir in shadowing changes to the country’s terrorism laws, including in January, when the prime minister signalled a crackdown on the group “and others who nurture extremism in our suburbs”.

Brandis led – and ultimately abandoned – a campaign last year to repeal section 18C of the federal anti-discrimination act, which makes it a crime to “offend, insult, humiliate or intimidate another person or a group of people” because of their race or ethnicity”.

The NSW attorney general, Gabriel Upton, also said this week she was “considering” a recommendation by a parliamentary committee in 2013 to make it easier to pursue criminal prosecution under the state’s race-hate laws.

It has been reported the cabinet’s national security committee is seeking one national security “announceable” to make each week between now and the next federal election.

A parliamentary committee on Friday is expected to recommend changes to the country’s citizenship laws that would make it possible to revoke the citizenship of dual citizens involved in terrorism offences.

Legal experts have questioned whether draft legislation, which proposes to strip the citizenship of whistleblowers and those who threaten commonwealth property, would survive a constitutional challenge.

Brandis said in a speech on Thursday to a defence industry conference that “the great Australian achievement” of tolerance was at risk of being lost in the debate about terrorism.