Victoria’s equal opportunity commissioner says free speech should never be used to justify inciting hatred

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

The Victorian equal opportunity and human rights commissioner has condemned the abuse of Senator Sam Dastyari in a Melbourne pub on Wednesday night, describing it as “dangerous, harmful and unwelcome”.

Dastyari and the Gellibrand MP, Tim Watts, were in the Victoria University student bar on Wednesday evening when a group of far-right nationalists intruded. The group approached Dastyari, who is of Iranian heritage, and began abusing him, shouting: “Why don’t you go back to Iran, you terrorist?”

Dastyari later described the verbal assault as “the sickening face of white nationalists”.

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Kristen Hilton, the commissioner, said there was “no place for these kinds of acts of hatred in our diverse and welcoming state”.

“Freedom of speech is a fundamental right but it should never be used to justify inciting hatred that risks causing harm to people,” she said.

“Every member of our society should feel confident that everyone will be treated fairly and justly, and that everyone can walk down the street or go to a pub without fear of abuse or assault.”

She said the Victorian Racial and Religious Tolerance Act “protects people from serious vilification”. “We have recently seen this law successfully used to prosecute individuals engaging in hate speech,” she said.

The act prohibits behaviour that incites or encourages hatred, serious contempt, revulsion or severe ridicule against another person or group of people because of their race or religion.

It was tested in the courts this year when three far-right nationalists who staged a mock beheading to protest against the building of a mosque in Bendigo in central Victoria were found guilty of inciting serious contempt of Muslims.

One of the men who was convicted, Neil Erikson, was among the group who abused Dastyari on Wednesday.

Victorian police said on Thursday that they had not been contacted about the altercation and would only be able to investigate if they were contacted by the victim, Dastyari. The senator was flying to Perth on Thursday morning and is yet to confirm whether or not he will seek to press charges.

Speaking to Neil Mitchell on the radio station 2UE he described the attack as “hurtful” and “offensive”.

“I cop a lot of abuse, a lot of hate [and] I probably cop more than other people because I’m a little bit outspoken and being a Muslim, even a non-practising Muslim, attracts abuse.

“It is offensive [and] it’s hurtful. It’s designed to get a rise of you [but] I call out racism and I call out Islamophobia for what it is.”

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He compared the incident to Tony Abbott being head-butted in Hobart in September. “This is where our politics is going,” he said.

Erikson was previously an employee of Toll in Tasmania but posted a video in May stating that he’d “lost his job” because of his involvement in the Bendigo case.



In a statement Toll said “the individual wearing the Toll polo shirt is not employed by Toll, and has not worked for us for several months”.

“The actions of these individuals in no way reflect the beliefs and values of Toll,” it said. “No member of the community should have to endure the behaviour displayed overnight and we do not tolerate such behaviour at our company.

“At Toll, we celebrate our diverse community and we expect all of our people to behave in a manner that is consistent with our values at all times.”