Equality before the Law Bench Book May 2026 update

The following material has been revised and updated:

Section 4 — People with a particular religious affiliation

The chapter has been extensively revised and updated.

• Significant additions have been made to Religious vilification and “hate crimes” at 4.3 in response to the introduction of recent State and federal legislative changes, including:
  • Amendments to the Crimes Act 1900 (NSW) enacted by the Crimes Amendment (Inciting Racial Hatred) Act 2025 (commenced 15/8/25) creating an offence of intentionally, publicly inciting hatred on the ground of race (s 93ZAA), and newly created offences under s 214B(1) regarding places of worship (introduced by Crimes Amendment (Places of Worship) Act 2025, commenced 3/6/2025), and s 93ZA(1AA) in relation to the display of Nazi symbols (introduced by Crimes Legislation Amendment (Racial and Religious Hatred) Act 2025, commenced 2/3/2025.
  • Amendments to the Criminal Code introduced by the Combating Antisemitism, Hate and Extremism (Criminal and Migration Laws) Act 2026 (Cth) (commenced 22/1/2026) increasing penalties for hate crime offences, such as new aggravated penalties for preachers and leaders who advocate or threaten violence, and expanding prohibited hate symbols offences. The Amendment Act also creates a fresh framework to enable organisations that engage in conduct constituting a hate crime to be listed as prohibited hate groups.
• At 4.3.2, a new section Racial Discrimination Act 1975 (Cth) has been added to provide a discussion on the term “ethnic origin” in Pt II and IIA of the Act and its particular relevance to Jewish and Sikh people.
• A new section Sikhism at 4.2.5 provides a brief overview of the beliefs of Sikhs, as well as relevant court practices. Sikhs are Australia’s fastest-growing and fifth-largest religious group.

Section 9 — Gender diverse people and people born with diverse sex characteristics

• At 9.4.2 Legal protections the decision of Giggle for Girls Pty Ltd v Tickle [2026] FCAFC 64 has been added. Here, the Full Court of the Federal Court of Australia determined that excluding a transgender woman from a women-only mobile application based on gender-related appearance amounts to unlawful direct discrimination under s 22, as read with s 5B(1), of the Sex Discrimination Act 1984 (Cth).

Section 13 — Modern slavery

A new chapter titled “Modern slavery” has been added at Section 13.

Modern slavery is an umbrella term used to describe a range of exploitative practices. It includes trafficking in persons, slavery, and slavery-like practices (forced labour, forced marriage, servitude, debt bondage and deceptive recruiting for labour or services). Modern slavery offences under the Criminal Code (Cth) and the Crimes Act 1900 (NSW) are covered in detail as well as transparency and due diligence frameworks under the Commonwealth and NSW Modern Slavery Acts.

This new chapter outlines modern slavery offences and provides contextual information including the identification of vulnerable groups, a review of attrition rates in modern slavery cases, the role of the Commonwealth and NSW Anti-slavery Commissioners, and the types of cases that are likely to arise in NSW courts.

The chapter was developed by Commission staff and an expert Committee reviewed and provided feedback. The Committee comprised:

• Dr James Cockayne, NSW Anti-slavery Commissioner
• Professor Jennifer Burn AM, Professor of Law, Anti-Slavery Australia at University of Sydney, and Lauren Dale, Anti-Slavery Australia
• Professor Stuart Kaye OAM, Professor of Law, University of Wollongong