Albanese ‘stunned’ by Coalition resistance after demands for parliament recall
Updated ,first published
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the Coalition was “stunned” by the government’s resistance to its anti-antisemitism bill, almost a month after opposition demands for an early recall of parliament and debate on legislation responding to the Bondi attack.
He condemned the Coalition shortly after Home Secretary Tony Burke criticized the opposition on the radio as hypocritical; because important figures of the Coalition claim that if the laws are adopted in their current form, they will harm freedom of religious expression and speech.
“Obviously it’s a bit surprising. The coalition has been calling every day, very clearly, for Parliament to be recalled,” Albanese told ABC radio, referring to Opposition Leader Sussan Ley’s comments in the days following the attack in which she demanded the laws “must be passed” and Parliament recalled early.
Albanese said on Thursday morning: “You can’t have it both ways. And it seems to me that people who have been watching events since 14 December must have seen politics being played by the Coalition. They are still playing politics and I’m surprised that some of their members have said they would vote against it without even looking at the legislation.”
Support from either the Coalition or the Greens will be required for the government to pass multifaceted antisemitism laws, which include cracking down on “hate preachers”, increasing penalties for hate speech and establishing a national arms buyback scheme. The laws were drafted in the weeks after the attack and will be discussed during an emergency session of Parliament next Monday and Tuesday.
Despite calls for weeks to recall parliament early, the federal Coalition argued that the bill was rushed without sufficient scrutiny. Key opposition figures have opposed further gun reform, said racial slur laws would have impacts on free speech, and fought against perceived impacts on free speech and religion.
Opposition home affairs spokesman Jonno Duniam said on Thursday morning that passing the bill in its current form would be “bad for our country” and that the proposed laws failed to effectively address “anti-Semitism and Islamic extremism”.
“The government has dropped the ball here. Yes, do it urgently, but do it the right way and make sure the provisions actually work. Unfortunately, they are failing on that. However, we are still working through that process. We have to get the balance right,” Duniam told the ABC.
Ley met with senior Coalition MPs on Wednesday and expressed serious reservations about the speed at which the bill was being brought forward. A mix of moderate and conservative MPs in the opposition have expressed concerns about the package publicly and privately; some contacted Jewish community leaders to explain their reasons for opposing the bill.
Albanese said he had met with both Ley and Greens Leader Larissa Waters several times recently to discuss the legislation and was open to any proposed changes. He said he has not been offered any changes so far.
“I find it surprising that people who argued that this was absolutely urgent – it was on the front pages of newspapers every day – and now they say: ‘Oh no, it’s not actually that urgent,'” Albanese said.
“I saw a comment [Liberal MP] Andrew Hastie says this can wait until after the royal commission. So it was pushed to 2027 without anything being done. “On the one hand, they say do it in Christmas week of 2025, and now they are talking about postponing things to 2027,” he said.
I’m talking to Seven Sunrise On Thursday morning, Burke said: “If after all this the opposition has opposed exactly the legislation they are demanding, then the hypocrisy of what they have been demanding for the last four weeks is truly disappointing.”
“I think it’s coming from a real sense of goodwill from everybody. And let’s do everything we can to make sure something like this doesn’t happen again. And let’s address bigotry, let’s address gun laws, let’s make sure we take action. So I’m still hoping that people’s better senses will come out,” Burke said.
The bills include a provision that criminalizes membership or support of extremist organizations, punishable by up to 15 years in prison. The neo-Nazi group National Socialist Network disbanded in response.
“The Nazis are taking a significant step backwards. None of this means that the hatred in these individuals is going away, but it is making it more and more difficult for them to organise, and so I cannot for the life of me understand how the Liberal Party has come to the point where they are now actually opposing the law,” Burke told ABC radio on Thursday.
Hizb ut Tahrir, the controversial Islamic fundamentalist group also targeted under the law, told the ABC they “cannot be banned” and are “neither hateful nor violent”.
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Nick Newling is the federal politics correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.Connect via email.
