Responding to recommendations tabled today by Queensland’s Justice, Integrity and Community Safety Committee to proceed with laws banning particular expressions, Amnesty International has warned that the new laws would pose a dangerous threat to fundamental rights.
The Committee’s support for anti-protest provisions in Queensland’s Fighting Antisemitism and Keeping Guns out of the Hands of Terrorists and Criminals Amendment Bill 2026 forms part of a broader and deeply concerning crackdown on protest across Australia, marked by expanded police powers and increasingly punitive penalties for protestors.
“Amnesty unequivocally condemns antisemitism, Islamophobia, anti-Palestinian racism and all forms of racism and violence. Combating hatred requires principled, evidence-based action that addresses its root causes, not sweeping laws that suppress peaceful expression and restricts human rights.” said Nikita White, Amnesty International Strategic Campaigner.
“Combating hatred requires principled, evidence-based action that addresses its root causes, not sweeping laws that suppress peaceful expression and restricts human rights.”
Nikita White, Amnesty International Strategic Campaigner
The Committee recommended the Bill be passed despite identifying potential incompatibilities with human rights. The Committee found these incompatibilities are justified and necessary, contrary to clear evidence from Amnesty and other human rights organisations that the Bill disproportionately restricts human rights. Labor members of the Committee called for more consultation, noting the Bill’s ban on prohibited expressions risks unintended consequences, and Greens’ Members recommended the Bill not be passed.
“The Queensland Government has unfairly conflated peaceful expression with antisemitism. Amnesty calls on the Crisafulli government to urgently reconsider this approach – undermining freedom of expression is not the solution to addressing antisemitism.
“While governments have an obligation to protect people from violence, discrimination and incitement to hatred, international law also requires any restriction on speech or protest be lawful, necessary and proportionate. This legislation fails that test and instead prohibits expressions that are historically used in peaceful protest movements.
“The prohibition of phrases, including ‘from the river to the sea’, is a clear overreach.
“Criminalising political expression that does not amount to incitement to violence is incompatible with international human rights standards and Australia’s implied Constitutional freedom of political communication. It risks stifling peaceful protest and disproportionately impacts those expressing solidarity with Palestinians,” said Nikita White.
“Criminalising political expression that does not amount to incitement to violence is incompatible with international human rights standards and Australia’s implied Constitutional freedom of political communication.”
Nikita White
Queensland’s Criminal Code 1899 already makes serious vilification based on race, religion, sexuality, sex characteristics and gender identity a criminal offence.
Amnesty is also deeply concerned by the law’s proposal to prescribe additional offences under the “Adult Crime, Adult Time” scheme. These provisions will disproportionately impact First Nations young people, who are already overrepresented in Queensland’s youth justice system and detained at unacceptably high rates in police watchhouses and youth detention centres.
Expanding punitive measures against children will only compound existing systemic discrimination and entrench harmful cycles of incarceration.
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