The ACT government will propose changes to the territory's Discrimination Act to make religious vilification illegal.
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Attorney-General Simon Corbell will introduce a bill in the Legislative Assembly next week in response to the secret campaign by the Concerned Citizens of Canberra against the Gungahlin mosque.
The bill will make it unlawful to publicly incite hatred, contempt or ridicule of a person based on their religion.
Mr Corbell said the "ongoing incitement" in relation to the mosque, and the distribution of anti-Islamic pamphlets to Canberra homes, had prompted the government to introduce the legislation in the final sitting week of the assembly.
The ACT Law Reform Advisory Council is currently reviewing the territory's Discrimination Act, but Mr Corbell said he believed more urgent action was necessary.
"We treat that behaviour very seriously," he said.
"Whilst our preference has been to see that treatment through the review of the Discrimination Act, we've decided to bring forward the proposal to make vilification on religious grounds unlawful."
In June, the Concerned Citizens of Canberra distributed thousands of flyers to north Canberra homes urging residents to oppose the Gungahlin mosque because of its "social impact", "public interest" and concerns about traffic and noise.
The Canberra Times later revealed the group's spokesman, Irwin Ross, was a Christian fundamentalist who described himself as a pastor with Olive Tree Ministries.
In more recent weeks, anti-Islamic pamphlets from a NSW Central Coast-based group called Concerned Citizens were mailed to the territory's MLAs in support of the anti-mosque campaign.
Anti-Islamic comics produced by the US-based Chick Publications were also redistributed in south Canberra just over a week ago.
"That kind of material has no place in a tolerant and diverse community and clearly seeks to vilify people of the Islamic faith and should be considered unlawful in the same way that discrimination on the grounds of race, gender or sexual orientation is unlawful," Mr Corbell said.
The ACT's Human Rights Commissioner Helen Watchirs recommended in her review of the Gungahlin mosque flyer that the territory's Discrimination Act be reformed to include better provisions for discrimination against religious groups.
If the bill is supported by the Assembly, it would bring the ACT into line with Victoria, Queensland and Tasmania, which have passed similar laws.