REPORT: Australia has just introduced what may be the most extreme hate speech law in Western history.
The new 2026 “Combating Antisemitism, Hate and Extremism Bill” punishes speech that causes fear—even if no harm occurs—with
up to 5 years in prison.
It gets worse.
The law applies to nearly everything: tweets, blogs, memes, even quoting scripture online. It explicitly states that it doesn’t matter if anyone actually felt hatred or fear. And it
allows the government to go back in time and charge people for things they said before the law existed.
The bill also gives police power to ban groups without due process—including groups outside Australia—and to
imprison citizens for up to 15 years for “supporting” them.
And while it claims to offer religious protections, a rep from the Attorney General’s Department confirmed that
Catholics and Christians will not receive those protections—even as Jewish, Islamic, and Sikh Australians do.
If you post a Bible verse today, what’s stopping them from calling it hate speech tomorrow?