Pauline Hanson\u2019s recent remarks about Muslims dominated political debate last week \u2013 and federal police said it had received reports of a \u201ccrime\u201d in relation to the Queensland senator\u2019s comments.<\/p>\n
As Hanson discussed the thwarted attempts by Australian women and children stuck in Syria to return home<\/a> on Sky News on Monday last week, she said: \u201cYou say, \u2018Well, there\u2019s good Muslims out there\u2019 \u2013 how can you tell me there are good Muslims?\u201d<\/p>\n Hanson has not withdrawn the comments, though she has offered some further comments framed as a conditional apology. In one of the subsequent interviews, she also singled out Lakemba, a suburb in Sydney\u2019s south-west, as somewhere people \u201cfeel unwanted\u201d and do \u201cnot want to be\u201d.<\/p>\n Sign up: AU Breaking News email<\/a><\/p>\n Anthony Albanese linked Hanson\u2019s remarks with a series of threats to the Lakemba mosque<\/a>. Hanson\u2019s own One Nation<\/a> colleague Barnaby Joyce has not endorsed the inflammatory comments.<\/a> Bilal El-Hayek, the mayor of Canterbury Bankstown, which includes Lakemba, said the senator should face charges over her \u201chighly inflammatory\u201d comments about Muslims.<\/p>\n On Friday, the Australian federal police said they were \u201caware of comments made during a media interview earlier this week\u201d and had \u201creceived reports of a crime in relation to this matter\u201d<\/a>. The AFP did not say whether they had begun a criminal investigation, only that they would have more to say \u201cat an appropriate time\u201d.<\/p>\n But what charges could Hanson face?<\/p>\n Are there any federal offences Pauline Hanson could be charged with?<\/p>\n Prof Luke McNamara, a law professor at the University of NSW, said while people may have made reports to police, matching the remarks to a criminal offence was complex.<\/p>\n \u201cThe challenge for the police and the prosecution will be to establish that that conduct falls within the definition of one of the various hate speech criminal offences, and that might be a challenge,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The Albanese government, in response to the Bondi beach terror attack where 15 people were murdered at a Hanukah gathering, last month passed new hate speech laws<\/a> which increased penalties for hate crime offences<\/a>. But McNamara said the new laws did not make a standalone offence for inciting racial hatred.<\/p>\n Federal hate crime laws are limited to intentionally or recklessly advocating or threatening the use of force or violence against a group or a member of a group, distinguished by attributes including race, religion and sex.<\/p>\n \u201cI imagine that one of the challenges for the police investigating Ms Hanson\u2019s conduct will [be] the need to prove that she intended to advocate the use of violence or was reckless about her words having this effect,\u201d McNamara said.<\/p>\n \u201cJust because someone uses language that might be regarded as expressing ill-will or even hatred against a group, it still doesn\u2019t mean that that person can be said to have intended to encourage violence against that group.\u201d<\/p>\n What about state laws?<\/p>\n Alleged hate speech can be prosecuted in any jurisdiction<\/a> where the comments have been broadcast.<\/p>\n In NSW, it is a criminal offence to publicly threaten or incite violence<\/a> towards a person or group of people on numerous grounds, including religious beliefs and affiliations. Timothy Roberts, president of the NSW Council for Civil Liberties, said Hanson\u2019s comments did not incite violence.<\/p>\n