{"id":592461,"date":"2026-04-08T02:01:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T02:01:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/592461\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T02:01:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T02:01:09","slug":"first-person-charged-under-queensland-hate-speech-laws-faces-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/592461\/","title":{"rendered":"First person charged under Queensland hate speech laws faces court"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">The first person to be charged under the Queensland government&#8217;s recently passed hate speech laws has appeared in court amid protests outside.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Liam Parry, 33, <a class=\"Link_link__5eL5m ScreenReaderOnly_srLinkHint__OysWz Link_showVisited__C1Fea Link_showFocus__ALyv2\" href=\"https:\/\/www.abc.net.au\/news\/2026-03-11\/qld-protesters-arrested-hate-speech-laws\/106443370\" data-component=\"Link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">was arrested and charged<\/a> on Wednesday 11 March for reciting the phrase &#8220;from the river to the sea&#8221; at a demonstration in Brisbane&#8217;s CBD.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">An 18-year-old woman was also arrested for having the phrase on the singlet she was wearing but was released without charge.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">The phrases &#8220;from the river to the sea&#8221; and &#8220;globalise the intifada&#8221; were deemed antisemitic by the government and some sections of the Jewish community and outlawed in Queensland when used to menace or offend someone.<\/p>\n<p>Loading&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">The new laws, passed in state parliament last month, included both written and spoken use of phrases, such as chants or placards at a protest, with penalties of up to two years in prison.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Mr Parry is facing one count of reciting or publicly displaying a prohibited expression that is reasonably expected to menace harass or offend member of the public.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Mr Parry was supported by dozens of pro-Palestinian protesters outside court on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">A 70-year-old protester, Mark Gillespie, was warned by police to put down a sign he was holding which read &#8220;from the sea to the river&#8221;, which is similar to the banned phrase.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"A man holds a sign that reads &quot;from the sea to the river palestine will live forever&quot; while talking to a police officer\" class=\"Image_image__5tFYM ContentImage_image__DQ_cq\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/f7ed4ae0f95ad0496e75e79500ce83f9.jpeg\" loading=\"lazy\" data-component=\"Image\" data-lazy=\"true\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"Typography_base__sj2RP FigureCaption_text__zDxQ5 Typography_sizeMobile12__w_FPC Typography_lineHeightMobile20___U7Vr Typography_regular__WeIG6 Typography_colourInherit__dfnUx\" data-component=\"Typography\">One protester was instructed by police to put down a sign with a similar phrase. (ABC News: Niddal Mustafa)<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">The protest was organised by Students for Palestine, which said it had more action planned for the coming month.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Mr Parry told reporters outside court he planned to contest the charges.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">&#8220;I&#8217;ve got more court dates coming up in a few weeks,&#8221; Mr Parry said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">&#8220;I think that it&#8217;s an important moment in Queensland right now. The government is trying to criminalise pro-Palestine advocacy, we can&#8217;t accept that.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I think the protest today is an indication that people won&#8217;t accept their civil rights and civil liberties being taken away.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Mr Parry said it felt &#8220;surreal&#8221; that he was facing up to two years in jail.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">&#8220;I don&#8217;t think there was anything hateful or menacing about my speech,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">The matter was heard briefly in the Brisbane Magistrates Court and adjourned to April 29.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The first person to be charged under the Queensland government&#8217;s recently passed hate speech laws has appeared in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":592462,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[9903,64,63,289284,651,1108,273361,6898,44,6899,2647,94,701],"class_list":{"0":"post-592461","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-australia","8":"tag-antisemitism","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-banned-phrase","12":"tag-brisbane","13":"tag-court","14":"tag-from-the-river-to-the-sea","15":"tag-gaza","16":"tag-news","17":"tag-palestine","18":"tag-protest","19":"tag-qld","20":"tag-queensland"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/592461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=592461"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/592461\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/592462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=592461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=592461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=592461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}