15 All three Justices agreed on the following two propositions which are
uncontroversial:
(1) Incite means to rouse, to stimulate, to urge, to spur on, to stir up or to
animate and covers conduct involving commands, requests, proposals,
actions or encouragement.
(2) It is not necessary for a contravention that a person actually be incited. The
test is an objective one.
16 At [30] Bathurst CJ (with whom Basten JA agreed) was also prepared to proceed
on the basis that it is not necessary to establish an intention to incite. That
issue was not finally determined.
Ordinary or reasonable member of audience?
17 At [41] Bathurst CJ provided the following summary of the principle when
determining whether the public act incites the relevant emotion:
It is not sufficient that the speech, conduct, or publication concerned conveys
hatred towards, serious contempt for, or serious ridicule of homosexuals; it must
be capable of inciting such emotions in an ordinary member of the class to whom it
is directed.
18 At [34] Bathurst CJ explained his preference for the term "ordinary member" of
the class, rather than an "ordinary reasonable" member or simply a
"reasonable member":
[T]o determine the issue by reference to a reasonable person without considering
the particular class to whom the speech or public act is directed would, in my
opinion, impose an undue restriction on the operation of the legislation.
19 This sentence generated further judicial comment both by Allsop P, another
member of the Court in Sunol v Collier (No 2), and by Ward JA in Jones v Trad
[2013] NSWCA 389.
20 Allsop P agreed with Bathurst CJ in relation to the construction of s 49ZT(1) but
made the following observations about the relevant audience at [61]:
The question of the audience against which the public act is to be assessed for the
purposes of s 49ZT(1) may be very important in any individual case. It will be
intimately connected with the whole context of the public act. Thus, in an
emotionally charged public meeting where reason has been pushed aside by
passion or hatred, it may be inappropriate to posit the standard of the "reasonable"
member of the class which may be aptly described as a group of impassioned
bigots. The question is ultimately one of fact in the context in which the act takes
place. If the general public is being addressed, bearing in mind the approach
conformable with Brown and Coco, the ordinary and reasonable members of the
public may be appropriate to consider.
21 As Allsop P was in the minority on this point, the views of Bathurst CJ and Basten
JA prevail.