NSW New Antisemitism Rules for Public Agencies, Universities and Government Contracts

Prevention of Antisemitism Bill 2026

Opposition Bill

4 Feb 2026: MPs in the first house are debating whether this bill is a good idea in principle.

Legislative Council

Legislative Assembly

Assent

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Topics

antisemitism government grants hate speech human rights public sector conduct university policies

Introduced by: Damien Tudehope MLC (LIB)

Links to official parliament websites

Official page: progress through parliament

Official page: bill text and explanatory notes

Effects of this bill

If this bill passes, it means that:

The Court must consider the IHRA definition and examples of antisemitism when deciding if a person has committed a hate crime against Jewish people.
Ministers and government sector employees are prohibited from approving grants to people or bodies suspected of engaging in antisemitic activities.
Public authorities must use the IHRA definition of antisemitism when addressing racism and include antisemitism in employee codes of conduct and diversity training.
NSW's ten public universities must adopt either the IHRA definition or the Universities Australia definition of antisemitism.
Universities must include their chosen definition of antisemitism in all relevant policies, procedures, and codes of conduct.
Universities must apply the IHRA antisemitism examples regardless of which definition they adopt.
Government agencies must take reasonable steps to avoid procuring goods and services from entities suspected of engaging in antisemitic activities.

News articles and press releases

Prevention of Antisemitism Bill 2026

The Hon. DAMIEN TUDEHOPE — 2026-02-04

The section also refers to the very useful set of examples developed by the IHRA to address modern manifestations of antisemitism. Proposed section 5 mandates that each public authority "when dealing with the issue of racism" must use and apply the IHRA definition and the accompanying examples. Specifically, public authorities must do that in their codes of conduct and their diversity and inclusion training programs. A "public authority" is as defined in the Independent Commission Against Corruption Act 1988, and includes the public service, any other government sector agency, State owned corporations, statutory bodies, local government authorities and the NSW Police Force.