Here’s the rub, New South Wales still has a law on the books that can land you in court for swearing at the air. We're not kidding. Section 4A of the Summary Offences Act 1988 is so broad that you don’t even need to be talking to anyone. That means you could be swearing under your breath in the main street of Dubbo and still get slapped with a charge.

And did you know, almost half of those charges last year were against Indigenous people. For a community that makes up only 3.4% of the population. That’s not “keeping order”, that’s a textbook example of a law being used as a net to haul in the same people, over and over. So Jeremy Buckingham moved an amendment to fix it.

Jeremy's amendment keeps the protection for genuinely hostile or threatening language, if you are using words to menace someone, you’ll still face the music. But if you’re just blowing off steam, protesting, or expressing yourself in the raw, imperfect way people actually speak? That’s not a crime, at least not in our book.

The fact is, these laws have been a used as a control mechanism since the convict era. They were never about public safety. They were about telling people to know their place, and giving police the discretion to enforce that on whoever they felt needed pulling into line. We’re still living with that legacy, and it’s about time we broke it.

We've had enough of watching people, especially from working-class and Aboriginal communities being funnelled into the criminal justice system over nothing more than words. Swearing’s not a crime. Threatening someone is, and that’s the difference, and this bill makes it crystal clear. We reckon a bit of swearing never hurt anyone, but this law sure has.

And on another front, for those of you who’ve been tuning into ‘Into the Weeds’, you might notice a few changes coming. We’re upgrading the whole setup, sharper sound, crisper video, and a few surprises in the pipeline. Watch this space... it’s about to get even better.