Work on Hate Speech Law to Stop, NZ Government Announces

In a decision likely to upset a myriad of groups representing minorities and possibly the Human Rights Commission, there will be no new hate speech legislation.

NZ Justice Minister, National Party MP Paul Goldsmith. Courtesy of the NZ National Party

The New Zealand coalition government has put an end to work on hate speech laws started under Labour. Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith announced on X (formerly Twitter) that he had instructed the Law Commission to abandon the project.

This is despite a 12 percent rise in what NZ Police term “hate incidents” reported to them between 2022 and 2023, to 9,351. The majority were racial abuse (83 percent) followed by incidents targeting people’s sexual orientation (9.7 percent), and people of a certain faith (5.8 percent).