Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is urging MPs across politics to criminalise racial hatred and back his gun buyback scheme during an emergency parliamentary sitting week next week. Source: The Australian.
Mr Albanese yesterday unveiled an omnibus bill in response to the Bondi massacre, which claimed the lives of 15 Jewish Australians, including a plan to prohibit hate groups such as Hizb ut-Tahrir and impose jail terms of up to 15 years on those who run, fund or join them.
While the scope of the hate speech legislation to be tabled on Tuesday has been kept narrow by focusing strictly on race – in line with what the Coalition has demanded for weeks – concern was raised over a provision in the bill exempting views from “religious texts”.
According to the bill, the laws do “not apply to conduct that consists only of directly quoting from, or otherwise referencing, a religious text for the purpose of religious teaching or discussion”.
The carve-out has raised alarm from Coalition sources that antisemitic views could still be espoused as long as a religious text is invoked, such as a passage in the Koran calling Jews and other nonbelievers “the worst of creatures”.
However, other Liberal MPs cautiously welcomed the provision, which they believed would protect faith groups such as Christians from having views founded from passages in the Bible – but deemed offensive by some groups – from being criminalised.
Mr Albanese urged all parliamentarians to put politics aside and support the legislation, which he suggested was vital for “national unity”.
Labor’s decision to combine hate speech reform with restrictions around gun ownership was met with immediate cynicism from Sussan Ley that the Government was trying to wedge the Coalition.
“We are deeply sceptical of the Prime Minister’s decision to introduce a single bill that will attempt to cover multiple complex and unrelated policy areas. For example, issues of speech are clearly separate from the ownership and management of firearms,” she said.
The gun reforms – which will see a national buyback scheme established and import controls introduced – have raised particular concern among the Nationals, given so many of their constituents are farmers.
FULL STORY
Anthony Albanese’s post-Bondi hate speech and gun reforms spark alarm in Coalition ranks (By Sarah Ison and Elizabeth Pike, The Australian)
RELATED COVERAGE
Parliament to be recalled next week to rush through new hate laws, rolled into one bill (Canberra Times)
