Caroline Marcus:
A protest that does have permission. Look, let’s get to our panel now and joining me tonight is Sky News contributor, Louise Roberts and Chief Economist at the Institute of Public Affairs, Adam Creighton. Welcome both of you. Let’s start with Anthony Albanese’s hate speech reforms and Multicultural Affairs Minister Anne Aly has said the government is open to criminalising other forms of hate like Islamophobia and homophobia after the antisemitism bill passes. She told the Australian once the combating antisemitism hate and extremism bill passes through parliament, the government is open to considering extending the protections to other forms of hate.
Now, Adam, there has been this concern that these laws, which I would argue are needed in some respect to protect the Jewish community could be exploited or broadened to criminalise other kinds of speech or thought crime. And now it seems like Anne Aly is belling the cat here.
Adam Creighton:
Well, look, that doesn’t really surprise me at all. I mean, I think the truth is these are laws that elements of the Labour Party would’ve liked to have passed even before the atrocity of Bondi last year. These are totalitarian laws in my view. It’s a dark day for free speech in Australia if these laws are passed. They’re going to criminalise a great deal of behaviour that I think will shock people and the laws will be implemented arbitrarily. And I think it should be opposed completely.
Look, it doesn’t surprise me that they want to expand the scope. I mean, the law, as it’s drafted at the moment, basically criminalises a form of conduct if some hypothetical, so called a reasonable person could be intimidated. There doesn’t actually have to be any harm caused by a statement or a slogan or a T-shirt even or a comment on Facebook. These would be criminal acts if people could in theory feel intimidated based on the nationality or religion. So I think we have to be very, very careful before we pass these laws and the laws will be even worse if they are extended, as you suggest to other groups.
We already have toughened laws. The New South Wales Parliament, the Victorian Parliament last year passed very tough laws for hate speech and for incitement of violence, which of course is already illegal. And the Federal Parliament did as well. And of course, those laws did absolutely nothing to stop the atrocity at Bondi last year. And I don’t think these new laws will either. They’re just going to criminalise a lot of behaviour and chill speech. They’re probably going to end comedy as we know it. So it won’t just be the Adelaide Writers Festival. It’ll be the Melbourne Comedy Festival as well that is ended because you won’t be able to make any jokes.
Caroline Marcus:
Well, yeah. Although a lot of, I think, the jokes that happen at these comedy festivals tend to all run one way politically. So I mean, maybe there’s no great absence there. But no, I think you’re right. There is a very chilling aspect to it and we do have tough laws. We already had incitement to violence laws and these were never tested. Much to the frustration of the Jewish community, they weren’t tested, the law we did have.
Adam Creighton:
And they can’t be enforced, as you say. Yeah, that’s right. They should be enforced.
Caroline Marcus:
Exactly. And Louise, look, speaking of hate speech and incitement to violence, the Al Madina Dahwa Centre, the Southwest Sydney Prayer Hall, which has been linked to one of the Bondi gunmen and once was led by the jihadist hate preacher, Wisam Haddad, will close its doors permanently. This was an announcement that came today after the New South Wales Premier had earlier announced a suite of new laws making it easier for local councils to shut down non-compliant religious spaces. I guess the question though, Louise, is how on earth was this place able to operate with such impunity for so long?
Louise Roberts:
Well, they’re too afraid to affect certain members of the community, aren’t they, Caroline? They’re worried about their voter base, I guess. And look, these are poison factories that should have been shut down long, long time ago, as you say. Shouldn’t even been operating under the auspices that it was. And I think the government, what they’re trying to do obvious federally is trying to get these new hate speech laws through without actually defining what hate is. And the things that actually really upset the Jewish community, the globalised, the Intifada and things like that, it’s not even going to tackle that.
And you’ve got the Commission for the AFP, Krissy Barrett, saying that even she can’t guarantee 100% safety if the law is actually pushed through. So it’s an absolute mess because nobody’s happy with it. I don’t think the Jewish community’s happy with it. Muslims are saying it doesn’t protect them. And you’ve got Christians saying it’s going to be punishment for religious beliefs, as Adam says. So it’s a disaster already.
Caroline Marcus:
Yeah. And it seems so rushed. I mean, hundreds of pages of legislation-
Adam Creighton:
Extremely, yes.
Caroline Marcus:
Was rushed through and it could potentially open the door for these chilling effects. But at the same time, as a member of that Jewish community, I want the government to do more about this. Look, the anti-Israel academic at the centre of the Adelaide Writer’s Week implosion, she’s launched defamation action against South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas’s writing on Instagram. He made a public statement that suggested, “I am an extremist terrorist sympathiser and directly linked me to the Bondi atrocity. This was a vicious personal assault on me, a private citizen by the highest public official in South Australia. It was defamatory and it terrified me.”
But curiously, and I played more of this interview at the top of the show, Randa Abdel-Fattah did a podcast with Jan Fran and Antoinette Lattouf, two former ABC presenters, and she appears to have been made comments that don’t exactly support free speech and reiterate her call for the end of Israel. Take a look.
Randa Abdel-Fattah:
I will not answer to them. I will not explain or justify why I said those comments. Why is it that I called for the end of a settler colony? I won’t be tone policed. I won’t have the outrage mob deny me my rage and my grief.
Caroline Marcus:
So she won’t be tone policed, Adam, but she also said free speech isn’t equal and she doesn’t want to see Zionists being platform. And again, she said they had no right to cultural safety. Do you think the premier should be worried about legal action from this person?
Adam Creighton:
Well, look, I don’t think so. Of course, she has every right to sue and probably burn through tens of thousands of dollars doing so if she wants to. But my understanding of the law is that truth is a defence in defamation cases. And she did make some very extreme comments in my view through her tweets and her public comments. So I think the fact that she’s upset for being characterised as an extremist, well, I think most people would say that she probably is an extremist. So that’s going to have to be tested in court. But if I was the premier, I don’t think I’d be too worried about this case.
Caroline Marcus:
No, he doesn’t seem to be either. And I would suggest to him, Exhibit number one, picture she posted of Palestinian paragliders on October 7th.
Adam Creighton:
Exactly.
Caroline Marcus:
Bring that up in the truth defence. Louise, meanwhile, the former director of the now cancelled Adelaide Writer’s Week, Louise Adler, unleashed on the festival’s board in an appearance on the ABC’s 7:30 programme last night. Now it follows the controversy obviously to axe Abdel-Fattah from the programme. That led to the mass walkout of other writers and the resignation of half the board. Let’s take a look at what Louise Adler said.
Louise Adler:
It proved to be untenable. I think when we look back on this history, we will see a masterclass in poor governance, an act of cultural vandalism, a moment when 180 writers said, “We will not support censorship.”
Caroline Marcus:
Louise, I think that Louise Adler herself trashed the festival by stacking it over the years with far left Israel bashing voices. And frankly, Abdel-Fattah should never have been given a platform in the first place.
Louise Roberts:
Of course not and the taxpayers in South Australia didn’t want to pay for that either. And that’s why the premier has backed in the decision to remove her from the actual festival itself. And I think that, again, we have these intellectuals who are playing the victim card. When they’re actually held to account for the things they say and the decisions they make like hiring this woman to speak at the festival, they’re suddenly the victim and they’re the free speech-
Adam Creighton:
Exactly.
Louise Roberts:
Exactly. That their free speech is in peril because they’ve been called out for what they’re actually doing, which is all about headlines and publicity and driving sort of controversy for something which is meant to be about books and authors. I mean, there’s been oodles of comments from people saying, “I wish the writer’s festival could go back to being about books and what I should read rather than this platform for hate and divisiveness and these intellectuals who think they can tell us how to live and what we should be reading and what we should be thinking moreover.”
Caroline Marcus:
Yeah. Amen to that. Like to see some nice happy books at these writers festivals for once. Adam Creighton, Louis Roberts, thank you so much for your time.
This transcript with Adam Creighton talking on Credlin – Sky News Australia from 14 January 2026 has been edited for clarity.
