{"id":605534,"date":"2026-04-14T04:39:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T04:39:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/605534\/"},"modified":"2026-04-14T04:39:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T04:39:09","slug":"man-charged-with-breaching-queensland-hate-speech-laws-tells-court-he-wishes-to-plead-insanity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/605534\/","title":{"rendered":"Man charged with breaching Queensland hate speech laws tells court he wishes to plead insanity"},"content":{"rendered":"

A 70-year-old man arrested under Queensland’s new hate speech laws has told the court that he wanted to plead insanity, because he “thinks the charge is insane.”<\/p>\n

James Joseph Dowling, who goes by Jim, is charged with one count of publicly displaying a prohibited expression.<\/p>\n

It comes after Mr Dowling last month attended a protest outside the Brisbane headquarters of Boeing<\/a>, a company that makes and sells military equipment, including to the state of Israel.<\/p>\n

Mr Dowling said he had a banner with the words: “From the river to the sea, Brisbane will be free of Boeing.”<\/p>\n

The term “from the river to the sea” was outlawed by the Queensland government last month<\/a>, when expressed in a way that makes a member of the public feel menaced, harassed or offended.<\/p>\n

The state government and many Jewish organisations say the phrase is antisemitic.<\/p>\n

‘The charge is insane’<\/p>\n

In Brisbane Arrest Court on Tuesday morning, Magistrate Belinda Merrin asked Mr Dowling how he would like to proceed with the charge.<\/p>\n

“I’d like to plead insanity, I think the charge is insane and anyone who takes it seriously is a bit suss as well,” he responded.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Mr Dowling told the court he intends to plead insanity, claiming the “charge is insane”. (ABC News: Lucy Loram)<\/p>\n

Magistrate Merin told Mr Dowling that he had the right to do so, but he would need to produce evidence to the court to prove it.<\/p>\n

“Ordinarily you will need to provide a psychiatrist report, do you have plans for that?” Magistrate Belinda Merrin asked.<\/p>\n

“It’s not that I’m insane, it’s that I think the law is insane,” Mr Dowling responded.<\/p>\n

“I see, I will note that you are contesting the charge,” Magistrate Merrin told the court.<\/p>\n

‘We will see what happens’<\/p>\n

After his mention in court, Mr Dowling was cheered on by a group of supporters holding pro-Palestinian signs.<\/p>\n

Hate speech laws passed in Queensland Parliament<\/a><\/p>\n

Sweeping new hate speech laws banning certain expressions in a way that makes a member of the public feel menaced, harassed or offended have passed in Queensland Parliament.<\/p>\n

“I’m not here to win any court case, I’m here to expose Boeing, who we were protesting when I was arrested for holding a simple sign that said, ‘From the river to the sea, Brisbane will be free of Boeing’,” he said outside court.<\/p>\n

“No mention of anything to do with any other politics.<\/p>\n

“We will see what happens.”<\/p>\n

The anti-war protester, who planned to self-represent in court, said he was not concerned about the prospect of jail time for the charge, which carries a maximum penalty of two years in prison.<\/p>\n

“I think that the majority of people in this country would agree with me that the law is crazy, to put behind bars for pointing that out would be totally absurd,” he said outside court.<\/p>\n

“I don’t think any magistrate in Brisbane is crazy enough to do that.”<\/p>\n

The matter was adjourned to later this month.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A 70-year-old man arrested under Queensland’s new hate speech laws has told the court that he wanted to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":605535,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,36619,2973,273361,29180,44,6899,2647,294703],"class_list":{"0":"post-605534","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-australia","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-brisbane-magistrates-court","11":"tag-courts","12":"tag-from-the-river-to-the-sea","13":"tag-hate-speech","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-palestine","16":"tag-protest","17":"tag-queensland-courts"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605534","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=605534"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605534\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/605535"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=605534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=605534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=605534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}