Parliament to debate new legislation after Bondi Beach massacre
Updated ,first published
New hate speech laws, which were urgently prepared after the Bondi Beach massacre, will be discussed in parliament next week.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced on Monday that he would recall federal parliament on January 19, ahead of a planned return on February 2.
“I will be writing to the Speaker this afternoon to recall both the House of Representatives and the Senate and the Senate next Monday and Tuesday,” Albanese told reporters in Canberra.
He said the coalition had agreed on the text of the condolence motion to be debated in both chambers on Monday, and despite all the complexity, he expected the debate to be completed within a day.
“The motion will unequivocally condemn the terrorist atrocities carried out on Bondi Beach and task our parliament to stamp out the evil of antisemitism,” he said.
The hate speech bill (the bill to combat anti-Semitism, hatred and extremism) will be debated on Tuesday.
Home Secretary Tony Burke has previously said new hate speech legislation would push the Constitution to its limits, and his department rushed over the summer to draft legislation that could withstand a challenge in the Supreme Court.
“This is a comprehensive reform package that creates serious criminal offenses for hate preachers and leaders who seek to radicalize young Australians,” Albanese said.
“This legislation increases penalties for hate crime offenses and ensures that this is taken into account in the sentencing of offenders whose crimes are motivated by extremism. It creates a new offense of inciting hatred with intent to intimidate or harass. It extends and strengthens the ban on banned symbols and makes it easier for the Home Secretary to cancel or refuse visas for people intent on spreading hatred, and creates a new framework that will allow the Home Secretary to list organizations as banned hate groups. Being a member of an organization on this list means Recruiting members, donating or receiving funds, or supporting that group in any way will constitute a crime.”
He said the legislation would also create a national gun buyback plan that would “bring Australia’s world-leading gun laws into the 21st century and remove guns from our streets”.
Attorney-General Michelle Rowland said the laws would be “the toughest hate laws Australia has ever seen”.
Rowland said the new offense of racial libel could be punished with a maximum prison sentence of five years.
Burke said that as immigration minister he would have more power to refuse visas.
“Right now, I have to test every time whether someone is coming on a public speaking tour or the extent to which someone might cause social discord. This draws a line in the sand and shows that racial bigotry in itself is a reason to deny a visa,” he said.
Burke named two groups, neo-Nazis and Hizb ut Tahrir, saying they were “called out by ASIO chief executive Mike Burgess last year for the real damage they are causing to our national security” and that they remained below the threshold for prosecution despite their direct impact on national security.
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“For some time now, they have created a pathway for others to resort to violence, making sure that they do not openly become violent themselves. They have kept themselves just below that threshold. This bill will lower that threshold, and will lower that threshold to the extent that we can within the framework of the constitution.”
More to come.
Brittany Busch is the federal politics correspondent for The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via email.
