Private litigation to address a public wrong: a study of Australia's regulatory response to "hate speech"

Australia has had a long experience with a unique version of hate speech laws in which hate speech is posited as a discriminatory harm. The regulatory schemes in most jurisdictions require a person to lodge a complaint regarding an instance of hate speech with the relevant human rights authority in that jurisdiction, which then attempts to conciliate a resolution (typically involving an apology or agreement to desist) between the complainant and the identified respondent. It is only after a complaint has been lodged with the human rights authority that a complaint may be terminated, and then a case can be brought to a tribunal (in the case of state/territory laws) or federal court (in the case of federal law).