February 20, 2026
Pro-Palestine chants, hate symbols set to be banned in Queensland
©Sydney Morning Herald
“Advocates who use a pro-Palestine chant could face imprisonment under new laws to tackle antisemitism and terrorism that are set to be introduced to Queensland parliament this week.
The suite of reforms will include tougher penalties on the use of symbols such as swastikas, Nazi emblems, the Hamas and Islamic State flags, and the Hezbollah emblem.
They will also crack down on intimidation and willful damage at places of worship, with penalties of up to seven years’ imprisonment.
The Crisafulli government plans to criminalize the public use of phrases “globalize the intifada” and “from the river to the sea”, global chants used by pro-Palestinian protesters amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza.
Premier David Crisafulli told media outlets the laws, set to be tabled in the first sitting week of the year, were necessary to protect Queenslanders and stamp out antisemitism following the Bondi terror attack in December, in which 15 people were killed and dozens injured at a Jewish Hanukkah event.
“We called this out from the beginning, we said we’d act, and through this legislation, we are delivering a strong and considered response,” he said.
“This is about drawing a clear line – and stamping out the embers of hatred that were allowed to burn unchecked for too long – to ensure we protect Queenslanders.””
Michael and I visited the Bondi Beach site. They’ve erected a small, temporary building. There is a Menorah painted on the bridge next to the site of the massacre. Somehow, your imagination creates a fictional piece of land, something dramatic to equal the seriousness and heartbreak. But it’s not. It’s just a stretch of scrub grass and sand, about 150 feet from the beach proper. In its ordinary, low-key setting, it is more poignant. We commented they will no doubt build something more meaningful, given that was such an unsettling event for the normally peaceful Aussies. And they should.
As above, they have been shaken into action. You and I would agree that what they are doing goes beyond perhaps what we would tolerate as Americans. As hateful and violence-inducing the rhetoric we read and see here, we are jealous guardians of the First Amendment.
We tolerate code that expresses views that if shorn of clever language, would land people in jail. The Aussies are not as fervent in their views and they are outlawing the nonsense.
Our laws here a direct function of the oppression of the British Empire. People couldn’t criticize the government and so, when drafting our laws, put criticism front and center…it is the First of the amendments. We put gun ownership into the Constitution, because we knew what it was like to face an armed government that could only be resisted through violence and force.
Australia has a different history. You all know it was settled by convicts, but it is nuanced. Were the original settlers violent criminals? How could you run a society that was essentially an open-air prison?
The vast majority of Australia’s convict settlers were not violent criminals. Most were convicted of property crimes, often relatively minor offenses. The most common were theft-related crimes like stealing food, clothing, livestock. These were nonetheless sentenced severely in England. Many were simply desperate people caught up in the harsh criminal justice system of the 18th and 19th century. Pickpocketing, shoplifting, receiving stolen goods, poaching, and forgery were common charges.
Violent crime was punished in England (capital punishment was common). And some of the Aussies were urban poor from the industrial cities, agricultural workers caught poaching, or young people who’d fallen into petty crime. A significant number were Irish Catholics transported for political activities or simply being on the wrong side of sectarian conflicts.
So, their view of the Mother Country and their experience with it was markedly different to ours. Thus, the “lean” to things like freedom of speech is different. Gun ownership is permitted there but more heavily regulated.
I know some of my readers would prefer the Australian standard…outlaw hate speech, including code, full stop. I confess I have sympathy for that. Start with some of our politicians, move along to some of our entertainers. The problem that prevents my full-throated endorsement is that once you begin down that road, then you never get off it.
Every administration will develop their own list of proscribed speech, and most especially, those of a Socialist or Woke spirit will find endlessly creative ways to express that: ‘Language expressing a desire to protect one’s home is colonialist and exclusionary and not permitted.’ I’m not even kidding.
Put another way, they come for your neighbor, they eventually get around to coming for you.
We stopped in California for three nights, on our way home, to see some of the kids/grandkids. We ran into a protest in Monterey. It could have easily been anywhere. About 20 or so people, the vast majority appeared to be between 18 and 30 years old. Evidently, dressing for an ICE protest means that Terrible Grunge is the only approved couture. Some of it was just incredibly awful.
Terrible Grunge Fashion Show:
And here is Silas, sporting urban designed ripped jeans, featuring a bootie flap covering his naughty bits and cleverly placed ketchup stain. As an accent piece, his bamboo devil carving. On his feet, plastic flip flops in neon green as a sassy counterpoint to his bright yellow t-shirt…a “2002 Twisted Sister!” nostalgia meme to pay homage to the golden age!
OK bro, tell me how we need to run this country. You look like a guy who would really know.
Anyway, many signs, most scrawled on poster board or something. Really intelligent stuff. Why the government here allows people to put “F*** Ice” on a sign held up in public, in which the *** is substituted by the actual letters is beyond me. I mean, kids see that stuff. And it is offensive, in all ways and more, does absolutely nothing to bring people to their banner and cause. You know, like you read the sign and you’re thinking, “I’m in!” What does it even mean?
Your editor here confesses to the use of expletives in his private conversations, perhaps to a fault and along with turning his socks outside out before putting them in the laundry room, is working on improving himself. Just so you know I’m not flinching-sensitive to the language.
But aside from the *** substitution, they were exercising freedom of speech, they were exercising freedom to protest. And they were not violent and so as dumb as I think they were, they were in bounds and not at fault in regard to behavior (the *** thing aside, which is simply another manifestation of the crudeness that has snaked into our culture).
“They will also crack down on intimidation and willful damage at places of worship, with penalties of up to seven years’ imprisonment.”
Don Lemon, are you listening? No, probably not. But for the rest of us perhaps a dose of clear thinking to measure exactly what you did.
Well, it’s hard, this democracy thing. You just can’t have your way whenever and however you want it. The validation of democracy is always truly found in the cracks in the sidewalks. The crackpots who come at all of us, with loud voices and blaring. Whether neo-Nazi racer-baiters, or anti-Semites cloaking as Palestinian protectors, or Socialists with true envy and hate issues, they’re around. Our free media of course amplifies their decibel output in an attempt to get all of us worked up and then, tuning in.
Just good to remember that there were 20 protestors on the curb, not 20,000 and not 200,000.
That would be IRAN. Stay tuned.
Thoughts, questions, or reflections? I’d love to hear them. You can reach me anytime at anthony@workingprofit.com
