By Lawrence Lyons
As a former police officer and having lived nearly seven decades, I have been observing human nature and societal changes long enough to say I’ve witnessed firsthand how the definition of “hate” has been weaponised in our political discourse. Today, we face a fundamental question: who has the moral authority to define hate, and more importantly, who decides what constitutes “hate speech” worthy of criminal prosecution?
From my Christian perspective, hate serves a legitimate and necessary purpose in human morality. We are called to hate evil, to despise injustice, and to oppose wickedness in all its forms. This is not malicious hatred directed at individuals, but rather a righteous indignation toward actions and systems that harm the innocent and vulnerable. When I encountered sex offenders stalking women, drug dealers destroying communities, or corrupt officials betraying public trust, my hatred of these evils motivated me to act with purpose and conviction.
The current hate speech legislation appears less concerned with protecting genuine victims than with silencing political opposition. When laws are crafted retrospectively, allowing authorities to prosecute individuals for words spoken years or even decades ago, we witness the hallmarks of authoritarianism. This isn’t about protecting communities—it’s about controlling discourse and eliminating competitors to the established political order.
During my policing career, we understood that evil required confrontation, not accommodation. Today’s approach of endless tolerance and relativism has created a society where we’re more concerned about offending criminals than protecting their victims. We’ve handcuffed police officers with political correctness while simultaneously releasing actual criminals through revolving-door justice systems that treat prison as vocational training rather than consequence for harmful actions.
The question of ethics cannot be divorced from belief systems. Whether one subscribes to Christianity, Islam, secular humanism, or atheism, all worldviews contain fundamental assumptions about right and wrong. Atheism, despite claims of neutrality, operates as much on faith-based assumptions about reality as any religion. Yet our current political climate pretends that secular progressive ideology represents some neutral, objective standard by which all other beliefs should be measured and potentially criminalised.
As Christians, we’re commanded to love our neighbours while hating sin. This distinction—loving the person while opposing destructive behaviours—has become increasingly difficult to articulate in a culture that conflates identity with actions. When we express legitimate concerns about policies that harm families, undermine community safety, or restrict religious freedom, we’re branded as “extremists” engaging in “hate speech.”
The real hate speech in our society comes from those who would silence legitimate dissent, criminalise traditional beliefs, and use state power to crush political opposition. When nearly thirty percent of Australians support alternative political voices, yet the establishment parties coordinate to exclude and demonise them, we witness the true face of intolerance.
Violence in our communities has increased not because of loose gun laws—we had fewer restrictions and less violence in previous generations—but because people feel unheard, unrepresented, and increasingly oppressed by a political class that serves itself rather than the people. When legitimate grievances cannot be expressed through democratic discourse, frustration inevitably seeks other outlets.
True hate is not the farmer with a rifle protecting his property, the citizen questioning government overreach, or the Christian expressing biblical convictions. True hate is the systematic effort to criminalise dissent, silence opposition, and transform Australia from a free democracy into an authoritarian state where the powerful decide which thoughts are permissible and which citizens deserve imprisonment for wrongthink.
We must resist this trajectory with the same determination our ancestors showed in building a nation where free people could speak truth to power without fear. That resistance begins with refusing to accept that our political masters possess the moral authority to define hate for the rest of us.