Hate speech laws and the workplace 2026
Hate speech laws and the workplace 2026 – The amendment to the Commonwealth Criminal Code, section 80.2BF Publicly promoting or inciting racial hatred states,
The Bill and fact sheets can be downloaded here
(1) A person commits an offence if:
(a) the person engages in conduct in a public place
(b) the person engages in the conduct intending to:
(i) promote or incite hatred of another person (the target), or a group of persons (the target group), because of the race, colour or national or ethnic origin of the target or target group; or
(ii) disseminate ideas of superiority over or hatred of another person (the target), or a group of persons (the target group), because of the race, colour or national or ethnic origin of the target or target group; and
(c) the conduct would, in all the circumstances, cause a reasonable person who is the target, or a member of the target group, to be intimidated, to fear harassment or violence, or to fear for their safety.
Two questions for employers and organisation are;
1, Is the workplace a public place?
2. Is this a workplace issue?
While section (1) (b) refers to a public place, many workplaces coould be considered as public places or partial public places such as shopping centres, hospitality venues, hospitals and many more where employees interact on a daily basis with members of the public without restriction on the entry of members of the public.
In addition many employees work in public places such as emergency service workers, hospitality workers, council/government or other employees engaged in public service work such as cleaning services, road maintenance, garbage collection and many more.
In these cases it could be argued that the new hate speech laws are definitely a workplace issue.
What about workplaces that are not considered to be public places such as offices, warehouses, factories where members of the public are not usually present or able to gain access, is hate speech still a workplace issue.
Can employers just say – not my problem.
Consider this.
Is the hate speech in the workplace an example of bullying or discrimination?
Is the behaviour a breach of a workplace policy or Code of Conduct and does it become a disciplinary matter?
Did the hate speech occur in an extension of workplace behaviour or in a location or directed towards someone working remotely who is harassed by email, on a social networking site, or by mobile phone.
What about posts on social media directed at another employee or groups of employees?
What about when the workplace shifts to a public place, is it an extension of the workplace for example?
Did the hate speech occur on work-related trips (such as training and, conferences or in hotels, cars or on trains etc).
Did the hate speech occur at work-related social events (such as work lunches, office parties, at bars and restaurants).
Hate speech laws and the workplace 2026 – Advice for employers
Following the Respect@Work report and changes to Sex Discrimination Act especially in relation to sexual harassment a number of employers conducted training for their employees so that the employees throughout the organisation were aware of the changes to legislation and their responsibilities under the Sex Discrimination Act.
I strongly recommend that employers conduct or update their training in relation to workplace misconduct to include the changes relating to hate speech laws.
Hate speech laws and the workplace 2026 – How can AWPTI help
We have updated our misconduct training program to include details of the new hate speech laws to ensure that your employees are fully conversant with the changes.
See details of the Undertstanding Workplace Misconduct proram
It is noted that the law introduced is somewhat vague and there has been a lot of information provided via social media which may not be completely reliable and therefore without doing some research employees might not fully understand the changes and howthe new law can affect them.
Like the positive duty in relation to sexual harassment, I suggest that employers take all reasonable and proportionate measures to eliminate hate speech in their workplace.
