Australian Sedition Law - History

History

Early prosecutions for sedition in Australia include:

• the conviction of Henry Seekamp for seditious libel over the Eureka Rebellion in 1854;
• the conviction of 13 trade union leaders of the 1891 Australian shearers' strike for sedition and conspiracy; and
• the action against radical Harry Holland, jailed for two years in 1909 over his advocacy of violent revolution during the Broken Hill miners' strike.

During the First World War Sedition laws were used against those who opposed conscription and war, in particular the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) in Australia. In 1916 members of the IWW in Perth were charged with sedition including 83 year old Montague Miller, known as the grand old man of the labour movement. Miller was released after serving a few weeks of his sentence but was re-arrested in 1917 in Sydney at the age of 84 and sentenced to six months jail with hard labour at Long Bay Gaol on the charge of belonging to an unlawful association. The Sydney Twelve were all charged and convicted with various offences including sedition.

Lance Sharkey, then General-Secretary of the Communist Party of Australia, was charged that, in March 1949 he:

uttered the following seditious words: "If Soviet Forces in pursuit of aggressors entered Australia, Australian workers would welcome them. Australian workers would welcome Soviet Forces".

The last prosecution was in 1960, when Department of Native Affairs officer Brian Cooper was prosecuted for urging "the natives" of Papua New Guinea to demand independence from Australia. He was convicted, and committed suicide four years later, after losing his appeal.