Contentious hate, gun reforms to go before parliament
Major gun and hate speech reforms are expected to pass parliament in near-record time after MPs held late meetings to agree on controversial changes.
Labor will introduce legal changes to block groups that use hate speech against people of other faiths, introduce stricter background checks on firearms owners and introduce a national gun buyback.
Debate on the revision following the mass shooting at Bondi Beach in December will begin in parliament on Tuesday morning. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese wants the reforms to pass on the same day.
Labor had originally planned to introduce gun and hate speech reforms in a single package but was forced to split the bill due to the coalition and the Greens’ fierce opposition to racial slur laws.
After the Prime Minister and Opposition Leader Sussan Ley discussed the reforms on Monday morning, Liberal MPs met in the evening to formalize their positions ahead of a joint party room meeting with coalition partners the Nationals on Tuesday.
Liberal sources told AAP on Monday night that their party had put forward a number of technical changes that were agreed to by Labor.
The changes include tightening the definition of preacher or religious leader, introducing a mandatory two-year review of the legislation and requiring the opposition leader to be consulted when listing an extremist organisation.
National MPs still have concerns about the impact of the reforms on freedom of expression.
The Greens have said they will not support hate speech legislation because of the impact it could have on political commentary, including protests, leaving the coalition as the only viable partner to pass the bill through the Senate.
Although provisions making it illegal to denigrate someone based on their race have been removed, the watered-down legislation would likely allow the government to effectively ban groups that promote hatred, including the neo-Nazi organization the National Socialist Network and the radical Islamist collective Hizb-ut-Tahrir.
The proposed laws would also allow the government to deny or revoke visas of people with extremist views.
Opposition home affairs spokesman Jonathon Duniam on Monday night praised elements of the bill that allow the government to shut down extremist groups.
Senator Duniam told Sky News: “I think there is scope to increase the capacity to crack down and suppress some of these groups.”
“This is a small part of what the government needs to do.”
National leader David Littleproud said he supported provisions allowing the visas of extremist preachers to be canceled but negotiations with the government were ongoing.
“There are elements that we want to support, but there are other elements that we obviously have serious problems with,” he told the ABC’s 7.30 programme.
Mr Albanese said he would not have a chance to deal with it if the legislation was not passed by parliament this week.
“We are not a government that keeps putting things forward over and over again to see that they are defeated,” he told ABC Radio on Monday.
