{"id":1134,"date":"2026-04-29T04:54:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T04:54:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/1134\/"},"modified":"2026-04-29T04:54:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T04:54:07","slug":"two-men-charged-under-queenslands-hate-speech-laws-enter-not-guilty-pleas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/1134\/","title":{"rendered":"Two men charged under Queensland’s hate speech laws enter not guilty pleas"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two of the first people in Queensland to be facing the state’s recently passed hate speech laws have both entered a not-guilty plea to their separate charges.<\/p>\n

Liam Parry, 33, and James (Jim) Dowling, 70, were both charged with reciting or saying the phrase “From the River to the Sea” in separate protests last month.<\/p>\n

The Queensland government outlawed the phrase, along with “globalise the intifada” in March.<\/p>\n

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

Mr Parry was arrested on March 11 for saying the prohibited phrase at a pro-Palestine protest in Brisbane’s CBD.<\/p>\n

He is facing one count of reciting or publicly displaying a prohibited expression that is reasonably expected to menace, harass or offend a member of the public.<\/p>\n

\"a<\/p>\n

Liam Parry, 33, pictured at court earlier this month, is facing one count of reciting or publicly displaying a prohibited expression that is reasonably expected to menace, harass or offend a member of the public. (ABC News: Erin Byrnes)<\/p>\n

In Brisbane Magistrates Court on Wednesday, Mr Parry pleaded not guilty to the charge that has a maximum penalty of up to two years in prison.<\/p>\n

His defence solicitor Emma Higgins requested an adjournment to allow time for the brief of evidence to be disclosed.<\/p>\n

Ms Higgins told the court she could not say how long the trial would go for, without knowing what was in the brief of evidence.<\/p>\n

Since Mr Parry was charged last month, more than 20 people have been arrested for either displaying or reciting the banned expressions in Queensland.<\/p>\n

The bulk of those arrests were made at a pro-Palestine rally in Brisbane earlier this month<\/a> and a following march to protest the laws.<\/p>\n

Advocacy group Justice for Palestine Magan-djin planned to challenge the laws at the High Court, on the basis they were unconstitutional.<\/p>\n

Mr Parry’s matter was adjourned until July 2.<\/p>\n

Separate not guilty plea<\/p>\n

Mr Dowling also entered a not guilty plea in the Brisbane Magistrates Court on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

The 70-year-old was arrested in March for holding a banner that read: “From the river to the sea, Brisbane will be free of Boeing.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Jim Dowling, pictured earlier this month, is charged with displaying a prohibited phrase at a protest against Boeing in Brisbane. (ABC News: Lucy Loram)<\/p>\n

He was protesting at the Brisbane headquarters of the company, which makes and sells military equipment, including to the state of Israel.<\/p>\n

“I was charged with saying ‘From the River to the Sea,’ the great crime of the century,” Mr Dowling told the court on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Magistrate Ross Mack then arraigned Mr Dowling, reading aloud his charge of reciting or publicly displaying a prohibited expression that is reasonably expected to menace, harass or offend a member of the public.<\/p>\n

“How do you plead to that charge? Do you plead guilty or not guilty?” Magistrate Mack asked.<\/p>\n

“I don’t recognise the charge. I think it’s insane. I’m not going to put anything to it,” Mr Dowling replied.<\/p>\n

“I’ll enter a plea of not guilty on your behalf,” Magistrate Mack told the court.<\/p>\n

“I’ll just note on the file that you can’t plea to the charge because the charge is insane.”<\/p>\n

Mr Dowling’s matter was adjourned until June 25 for a review.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two of the first people in Queensland to be facing the state’s recently passed hate speech laws have…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1135,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[22,21,1960,1958,1109,1957,1959,1865,211,212],"class_list":{"0":"post-1134","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-australia","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-austrlia","10":"tag-banned-phrases","11":"tag-brisbane-magistrates-court","12":"tag-court","13":"tag-hate-speech","14":"tag-hate-speech-laws","15":"tag-protest","16":"tag-qld","17":"tag-queensland"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1134"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1134\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}