Latest news with #Boothby

Proposed law change protects questionable pub jokes

Otago Daily Times

11 hours ago

Politics
Otago Daily Times

Proposed law change protects questionable pub jokes

Telling a questionable joke at a pub will not land people before an anti-discrimination complaints hearing under an Australian territory's proposed new laws. Attorney-General Marie-Clare Boothby has defended the Northern Territory government's planned anti-discrimination laws to be introduced to parliament in July. At an estimates hearing on Monday, she rejected accusations from shadow attorney-general Chansey Paech that the planned laws "watered down" protections for people offended by comments made about them. Ms Boothby said her government was restoring "fairness and common sense" to laws that went too far when the previous Labor government revised them in 2022. The proposed laws remove "vague" terms such as "offend" and "insult". They will be replaced with clearer terms to prohibit conduct that "incites hatred, serious contempt or severe ridicule" based on personal attributes such as race, sexuality, gender identity, religion and more. "It's still a strong measure of anti-vilification, so we don't put up with that kind of behaviour," Ms Boothby said. "Any kind of hate speech is not acceptable in our community." The attorney-general said the new laws also restored protections for religious schools, allowing them to hire staff who upheld their faith while protecting against discrimination based on race, sexuality or gender. Territorians wanted their freedom to enjoy the territory lifestyle, she said. "It's not just having a joke at the pub that's going to land you in front of a hearing," Ms Boothby said. "We want something that's more serious than that. "We still want to be able to tell a joke. We still want to have freedom of speech debates." It was a case of restoring balance and ensuring the law did not overreach into everyday conversations, religious freedoms, or basic rights to express an opinion, Ms Boothby said. The government consulted religious and multicultural groups, sex workers, LGBTQI groups, the anti-discrimination commissioner and others on the new laws. The proposed legislation was in line with changes made in other Australian jurisdictions, the attorney-general said. The estimates hearing was told the office of the NT Anti-Discrimination Commissioner had a budget cut for 2025/26 of $269,000 to $1.65 million. Commissioner Jeswynn Yogaratnam told the hearing his office received up to 300 complaints a year but only had two complaints officers amid a large backlog of cases. He said only three of 46 vilification complaints this financial year had been accepted in relation to race, religious belief, gender identity and disability. Complaints were assessed as to whether they were trivial, vexatious or had no grounds, while those that proceeded were subject to a high-threshold objective standard of assessment, Mr Yogaratnam said. "So things like your jokes at the pub would not amount to vilification in the context of the way in which we assess it. "Clearly if that joke is one that incites hatred in relation to one of the 24 protected attributes like race, gender identity, disability, then that would be something we would need to consider." Any other version of the NT's vilification provision "would be watering it down" because it was the strongest vilification law in Australia, he said.

The Advertiser

12 hours ago

Politics
The Advertiser

Proposed law change protects questionable pub jokes

Telling a questionable joke at a pub will not land people before an anti-discrimination complaints hearing under a territory's proposed new laws. Attorney-General Marie-Clare Boothby has defended the Northern Territory government's planned anti-discrimination laws to be introduced to parliament in July. At an estimates hearing on Monday, she rejected accusations from shadow attorney-general Chansey Paech that the planned laws "watered down" protections for people offended by comments made about them. Ms Boothby said her government was restoring "fairness and common sense" to laws that went too far when the previous Labor government revised them in 2022. The proposed laws remove "vague" terms such as "offend" and "insult". They will be replaced with clearer terms to prohibit conduct that "incites hatred, serious contempt or severe ridicule" based on personal attributes such as race, sexuality, gender identity, religion and more. "It's still a strong measure of anti-vilification, so we don't put up with that kind of behaviour," Ms Boothby said. "Any kind of hate speech is not acceptable in our community." The attorney-general said the new laws also restored protections for religious schools, allowing them to hire staff who upheld their faith while protecting against discrimination based on race, sexuality or gender. Territorians wanted their freedom to enjoy the territory lifestyle, she said. "It's not just having a joke at the pub that's going to land you in front of a hearing," Ms Boothby said. "We want something that's more serious than that. "We still want to be able to tell a joke. We still want to have freedom of speech debates." It was a case of restoring balance and ensuring the law did not overreach into everyday conversations, religious freedoms, or basic rights to express an opinion, Ms Boothby said. The government consulted religious and multicultural groups, sex workers, LGBTQI groups, the anti-discrimination commissioner and others on the new laws. The proposed legislation was in line with changes made in other Australian jurisdictions, the attorney-general said. The estimates hearing was told the office of the NT Anti-Discrimination Commissioner had a budget cut for 2025/26 of $269,000 to $1.65 million. Commissioner Jeswynn Yogaratnam told the hearing his office received up to 300 complaints a year but only had two complaints officers amid a large backlog of cases. He said only three of 46 vilification complaints this financial year had been accepted in relation to race, religious belief, gender identity and disability. Complaints were assessed as to whether they were trivial, vexatious or had no grounds, while those that proceeded were subject to a high-threshold objective standard of assessment, Mr Yogaratnam said. "So things like your jokes at the pub would not amount to vilification in the context of the way in which we assess it. "Clearly if that joke is one that incites hatred in relation to one of the 24 protected attributes like race, gender identity, disability, then that would be something we would need to consider." Any other version of the NT's vilification provision "would be watering it down" because it was the strongest vilification law in Australia, he said. Telling a questionable joke at a pub will not land people before an anti-discrimination complaints hearing under a territory's proposed new laws. Attorney-General Marie-Clare Boothby has defended the Northern Territory government's planned anti-discrimination laws to be introduced to parliament in July. At an estimates hearing on Monday, she rejected accusations from shadow attorney-general Chansey Paech that the planned laws "watered down" protections for people offended by comments made about them. Ms Boothby said her government was restoring "fairness and common sense" to laws that went too far when the previous Labor government revised them in 2022. The proposed laws remove "vague" terms such as "offend" and "insult". They will be replaced with clearer terms to prohibit conduct that "incites hatred, serious contempt or severe ridicule" based on personal attributes such as race, sexuality, gender identity, religion and more. "It's still a strong measure of anti-vilification, so we don't put up with that kind of behaviour," Ms Boothby said. "Any kind of hate speech is not acceptable in our community." The attorney-general said the new laws also restored protections for religious schools, allowing them to hire staff who upheld their faith while protecting against discrimination based on race, sexuality or gender. Territorians wanted their freedom to enjoy the territory lifestyle, she said. "It's not just having a joke at the pub that's going to land you in front of a hearing," Ms Boothby said. "We want something that's more serious than that. "We still want to be able to tell a joke. We still want to have freedom of speech debates." It was a case of restoring balance and ensuring the law did not overreach into everyday conversations, religious freedoms, or basic rights to express an opinion, Ms Boothby said. The government consulted religious and multicultural groups, sex workers, LGBTQI groups, the anti-discrimination commissioner and others on the new laws. The proposed legislation was in line with changes made in other Australian jurisdictions, the attorney-general said. The estimates hearing was told the office of the NT Anti-Discrimination Commissioner had a budget cut for 2025/26 of $269,000 to $1.65 million. Commissioner Jeswynn Yogaratnam told the hearing his office received up to 300 complaints a year but only had two complaints officers amid a large backlog of cases. He said only three of 46 vilification complaints this financial year had been accepted in relation to race, religious belief, gender identity and disability. Complaints were assessed as to whether they were trivial, vexatious or had no grounds, while those that proceeded were subject to a high-threshold objective standard of assessment, Mr Yogaratnam said. "So things like your jokes at the pub would not amount to vilification in the context of the way in which we assess it. "Clearly if that joke is one that incites hatred in relation to one of the 24 protected attributes like race, gender identity, disability, then that would be something we would need to consider." Any other version of the NT's vilification provision "would be watering it down" because it was the strongest vilification law in Australia, he said. Telling a questionable joke at a pub will not land people before an anti-discrimination complaints hearing under a territory's proposed new laws. Attorney-General Marie-Clare Boothby has defended the Northern Territory government's planned anti-discrimination laws to be introduced to parliament in July. At an estimates hearing on Monday, she rejected accusations from shadow attorney-general Chansey Paech that the planned laws "watered down" protections for people offended by comments made about them. Ms Boothby said her government was restoring "fairness and common sense" to laws that went too far when the previous Labor government revised them in 2022. The proposed laws remove "vague" terms such as "offend" and "insult". They will be replaced with clearer terms to prohibit conduct that "incites hatred, serious contempt or severe ridicule" based on personal attributes such as race, sexuality, gender identity, religion and more. "It's still a strong measure of anti-vilification, so we don't put up with that kind of behaviour," Ms Boothby said. "Any kind of hate speech is not acceptable in our community." The attorney-general said the new laws also restored protections for religious schools, allowing them to hire staff who upheld their faith while protecting against discrimination based on race, sexuality or gender. Territorians wanted their freedom to enjoy the territory lifestyle, she said. "It's not just having a joke at the pub that's going to land you in front of a hearing," Ms Boothby said. "We want something that's more serious than that. "We still want to be able to tell a joke. We still want to have freedom of speech debates." It was a case of restoring balance and ensuring the law did not overreach into everyday conversations, religious freedoms, or basic rights to express an opinion, Ms Boothby said. The government consulted religious and multicultural groups, sex workers, LGBTQI groups, the anti-discrimination commissioner and others on the new laws. The proposed legislation was in line with changes made in other Australian jurisdictions, the attorney-general said. The estimates hearing was told the office of the NT Anti-Discrimination Commissioner had a budget cut for 2025/26 of $269,000 to $1.65 million. Commissioner Jeswynn Yogaratnam told the hearing his office received up to 300 complaints a year but only had two complaints officers amid a large backlog of cases. He said only three of 46 vilification complaints this financial year had been accepted in relation to race, religious belief, gender identity and disability. Complaints were assessed as to whether they were trivial, vexatious or had no grounds, while those that proceeded were subject to a high-threshold objective standard of assessment, Mr Yogaratnam said. "So things like your jokes at the pub would not amount to vilification in the context of the way in which we assess it. "Clearly if that joke is one that incites hatred in relation to one of the 24 protected attributes like race, gender identity, disability, then that would be something we would need to consider." Any other version of the NT's vilification provision "would be watering it down" because it was the strongest vilification law in Australia, he said. Telling a questionable joke at a pub will not land people before an anti-discrimination complaints hearing under a territory's proposed new laws. Attorney-General Marie-Clare Boothby has defended the Northern Territory government's planned anti-discrimination laws to be introduced to parliament in July. At an estimates hearing on Monday, she rejected accusations from shadow attorney-general Chansey Paech that the planned laws "watered down" protections for people offended by comments made about them. Ms Boothby said her government was restoring "fairness and common sense" to laws that went too far when the previous Labor government revised them in 2022. The proposed laws remove "vague" terms such as "offend" and "insult". They will be replaced with clearer terms to prohibit conduct that "incites hatred, serious contempt or severe ridicule" based on personal attributes such as race, sexuality, gender identity, religion and more. "It's still a strong measure of anti-vilification, so we don't put up with that kind of behaviour," Ms Boothby said. "Any kind of hate speech is not acceptable in our community." The attorney-general said the new laws also restored protections for religious schools, allowing them to hire staff who upheld their faith while protecting against discrimination based on race, sexuality or gender. Territorians wanted their freedom to enjoy the territory lifestyle, she said. "It's not just having a joke at the pub that's going to land you in front of a hearing," Ms Boothby said. "We want something that's more serious than that. "We still want to be able to tell a joke. We still want to have freedom of speech debates." It was a case of restoring balance and ensuring the law did not overreach into everyday conversations, religious freedoms, or basic rights to express an opinion, Ms Boothby said. The government consulted religious and multicultural groups, sex workers, LGBTQI groups, the anti-discrimination commissioner and others on the new laws. The proposed legislation was in line with changes made in other Australian jurisdictions, the attorney-general said. The estimates hearing was told the office of the NT Anti-Discrimination Commissioner had a budget cut for 2025/26 of $269,000 to $1.65 million. Commissioner Jeswynn Yogaratnam told the hearing his office received up to 300 complaints a year but only had two complaints officers amid a large backlog of cases. He said only three of 46 vilification complaints this financial year had been accepted in relation to race, religious belief, gender identity and disability. Complaints were assessed as to whether they were trivial, vexatious or had no grounds, while those that proceeded were subject to a high-threshold objective standard of assessment, Mr Yogaratnam said. "So things like your jokes at the pub would not amount to vilification in the context of the way in which we assess it. "Clearly if that joke is one that incites hatred in relation to one of the 24 protected attributes like race, gender identity, disability, then that would be something we would need to consider." Any other version of the NT's vilification provision "would be watering it down" because it was the strongest vilification law in Australia, he said.

Questionable pub jokes protected in proposed law change

Perth Now

16 hours ago

Politics
Perth Now

Questionable pub jokes protected in proposed law change

Australia's youngest-ever senator Charlotte Walker has a lot to learn but says she is ‘not naive'

The Guardian

27-05-2025

Business
The Guardian

Australia's youngest-ever senator Charlotte Walker has a lot to learn but says she is ‘not naive'

The median age of Australia's federal parliamentarians is 50. On election night, as the scale of Labor's victory was revealed, Charlotte Walker was blowing out the candles on her 21st birthday cake. On Tuesday, she was officially declared a Labor senator for South Australia and became the youngest senator ever elected. 'I'm just taking it a day at a time,' she tells Guardian Australia as she prepares for Senate school in Canberra. On 3 May Walker worked on polling booths then spent the night in the seat of Boothby, where Labor's Louise Miller-Frost held out against Liberal Rachel Swift. Amid the other celebrations, a colleague sorted her out with cake. Walker says she loves her work for the Australian Services Union, and would be staying there if she wasn't off to Canberra. Asked what makes her nervous about her parliamentary debut, she says she is 'not naive'. 'There's a lot to learn,' she says, but the support from her union and Labor colleagues has been 'amazing'. Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email Her youth, she says, will bring another perspective to parliament. 'I grew up in the regions,' she says of her childhood in Yankalilla and Normanville. 'I think we need our regions to also remain represented, so hopefully that complements my youth.' She studied agriculture throughout school, is pondering committee work including on the education and employment committee, and mentions global unpredictability and the cost-of-living crisis as challenges facing the nation. She describes herself as 'somewhere in the middle' of extraversion and introversion, as someone who is 'empathetic and understanding'. 'I like to have a bit of fun as well,' she says. Walker takes the youngest-ever-senator mantle from the Western Australian Greens senator Jordon Steele-John, who was 23 when he was elected. Before him, the South Australian Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young was elected at 25, and the Australian Democrats senator Natasha Stott Despoja, also from SA, was appointed at 26. 'It's wonderful to hand the baton to another young South Australian woman,' Hanson-Young says. 'There's plenty of older people in politics who don't listen, don't take good advice and make stupid mistakes. Age isn't a determining factor of a good politician – but knowing what you believe and being open to others' views certainly is,' she says. Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion 'My main tip is to surround yourself with people who will give you honest advice. And to be true with yourself about what you know and don't know. 'It is impossible to know everything – and you don't need to – but the best skill is to be able to listen.' The youngest elected parliamentarian was the Liberal Wyatt Roy, who was 20 when he was elected to the House of Representatives. Walker's election means the Liberal senator David Fawcett, who had been in parliament for 20 years, lost his spot. The Labor senators Marielle Smith and Karen Grogan, Liberals Alex Antic and Anne Ruston, and Hanson-Young were all re-elected in South Australia. But Labor taking the sixth spot was entirely unexpected. The electoral analyst Ben Raue says parties often use young people in elections to 'fill up numbers', or as a practice run for the future. But Walker has a strong pedigree and is no spot filler. As well as her union work, she was the SA Young Labor president. She says she was raised with 'Labor values'. 'My mum really set me up well to make an informed decision,' she says. 'It wasn't like … 'you will vote Labor'. She gave me the tools I needed to make a good decision and I ended up with Labor.' She says her mother was with her from her first job in politics and joining the party to now. 'So I think it's been a bit of a whirlwind for her as well,' she says. 'But I hope she's feeling proud.'

Concerning rise triggers mandatory DV sentencing laws

West Australian

21-05-2025

Politics
West Australian

Concerning rise triggers mandatory DV sentencing laws

Mandatory sentencing for domestic violence order breaches have been restored under a territory's new laws after a concerning rise in incidents. The Northern Territory's Country Liberal Party government has pushed through the laws, with Attorney-General Marie-Clare Boothby saying they would ensure domestic violence perpetrators faced real consequences for offending. "For too long, the rights of offenders have been prioritised over the rights of victims," she said. The new laws restore mandatory minimum sentence provisions repealed by the former Labor government in 2022, with Ms Boothby saying domestic violence incidents since then had increased by 82 per cent across the NT. "The previous Labor government neglected our justice system, they let crime spiral, backlogs grow, and left victims behind," she said. The new laws were aimed at addressing this as part of last week's record budget announcement of $1.5 billion on law and order. Offenders who harm or threaten a victim will go to jail if they have previously breached a domestic violence order, or if they breach an order multiple times in a short period (28 days). The new measures include a tiered mandatory sentencing framework from two to five years of imprisonment and an increase in the levy for guilty offenders by around 40 per cent to bolster funds for victims' services. They also expand a victims' register to more frequently notify victim-survivors when perpetrators breach orders and introduce a new electronic application process to fast-track applications for victims seeking financial relief. "We must do everything we can to protect victims and keep them safe from their perpetrators," Ms Boothby said. But legal reform and social support groups have disputed the impact of the new mandatory sentencing laws, saying they would not reduce offending. Justice Reform Initiative NT co-ordinator Kirsten Wilson said the laws were a "knee-jerk" tough-on-crime approach that would not work to keep women and families safe in the long term. She said the CLP government needed to recognise that imprisonment failed to address the drivers of offending, with evidence showing mandatory sentencing did not deter crime. "The evidence shows us that imprisonment increases the risk of reoffending and often entrenches underlying issues by worsening employment prospects, health outcomes, and cutting people off from their community." Fellow Justice Reform co-ordinator Rocket Bretherton urged the NT government to shift focus to support frontline services that address the causes of violent behaviour and explore alternatives to imprisonment to ensure women's safety. "Mandatory sentencing has been shown to increase women's incarceration rates alongside men's and disproportionately impact First Nations women," she said. Law changes must be balanced with investment in community programs and First Nations-led initiatives that work to address offending behaviours to keep women and families safe, Ms Bretherton said. The NT Council of Social Service CEO Sally Sievers said all 21 submissions to the parliamentry committee that scrutinised the new laws opposed them, but they still passed. "Mandatory sentencing without meaningful rehabilitation is not a solution. It's a missed opportunity for prevention," she said in a statement. The community services sector was ready to work with the government to ensure victims and offenders had access to programs to prevent violence and improve community safety, Ms Sievers said. 1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732) Lifeline 13 11 14 Men's Referral Service 1300 766 491

Latest news with #Boothby

Proposed law change protects questionable pub jokes

Proposed law change protects questionable pub jokes

Questionable pub jokes protected in proposed law change

Australia's youngest-ever senator Charlotte Walker has a lot to learn but says she is ‘not naive'

Concerning rise triggers mandatory DV sentencing laws

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