Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has announced that the government will abandon their planned laws to crack down on hate speech and vilification that had been promised in the wake of the Bondi massacre. Next week’s recall of parliament will still consider laws around gun ownership.
Opposition leader Sussan Ley had been calling for a Royal Commission into the December attack, and demanded that parliament be recalled to pass new legislation.
After weeks of arguing that a federal Royal Commission would take too long the PM flipped his position appointing former judge Virginia Bell to lead a Royal Commission into Antisemitism and Social Cohesion. He also ordered parliament to meet and pass an omnibus of laws relating to hate speech, vilification and gun control.
Soon members of the Coalition were balking at the proposed bill, and earlier today The Greens announced they would side with the Coalition in opposing the legislation.
“The Greens are willing to work with the government to pass gun laws, but the rest of the omnibus bill needs a huge amount of work,” leader Larissa Waters said on Saturday.
Today the Prime Minister announced that Labor would be abandoning the hate speech section of the bill given that there was clearly no chance of it getting support from either The Greens, Liberal or the National party.
“We will not be proceeding with the racial vilification provisions because it’s clear that that will not have support,” the Prime Minister said.
“The racial vilification laws do not have the support of the Senate,” Mr Albanese said.
“That is what the Greens Party and the Liberal Party have made clear.
“So, we deal with the Parliament that we have.”
Labor will also try to push through legislation giving the government powers to ban hate groups, including neo-Nazi organisations and Islamic organisation Hizb ut-Tahrir, as well as to revoke or refuse visas for people with extremist views seeking to come to Australia.
Sussan Ley says more scrutiny was needed of the legislation and the government was moving too fast
A spokesperson for Coaliton leader Sussan Ley said the Prime Minister was now facing up to reality.
“He has decided to split what he told Australians was an un-splittable bill, including when directly asked by the Opposition Leader face-to-face, and he has made wholesale changes without hearing back from the Parliamentary Joint Standing Committee on Intelligence and Security, a process he said was critical for scrutinising the bill,” the spokesman said.
“Not only has his timeline curtailed community voices from being heard, but now he ignores the inquiry altogether, including the over 7000 submissions that organisations and individuals rushed to submit to meet his arbitrary deadline.
“Anthony Albanese told Australians he took the time to get this right, today makes clear that was not an honest statement.” the spokesperson said.
Political commentators have however also described Ley’s handling of the issue as a performance that might put the final nail in the coffin of her leadership. After demanding that the government move fast, she has subsequently accused them of moving too quickly.
Ley has also been bugged by backbenchers announcing their opposition to the legislation before she’s had a chance to state the Coalitions position, and she’s faced a stand off between Liberal and Nationals members over all parts of the legislation.
The legislation has been heavily criticised for designing laws which specifically focus on hatred and vilification directed towards Jewish Australians while ignoring similar actions directed at other minority groups.
In his media appearance today the Prime Minister said the Coalition were obsessed with opposing things.
“The opposition is so obsessed with opposing things, they’ve now started opposing themselves,” Albanese said on Saturday.
“It’s quite clear that, in part, this has been driven by the division which is there within the Liberal party and the contest that’s taking place openly for the leadership of the Liberal party.” PM Anthony Albanese said.
