Liberals are backing away from a push to tackle antisemitism with stronger racial hatred laws, with some senior figures in the party also voicing freedom of speech concerns. Source: ABC News.
After spending weeks criticising Prime Minister Anthony Albanese for not immediately recalling Parliament in the wake of the Bondi terror attack, the Coalition is now citing concerns about “rushed” legislation due to be debated next week.
Opposition leader Sussan Ley convened a Liberal leadership meeting last night, where she expressed reservations about Labor’s bill, claiming it would not eradicate antisemitism or crack down on radical Islamic extremism.
Her pivot was supported in the room by senior Liberal figures, including Angus Taylor, Anne Ruston and Paul Scarr.
While Ms Ley criticised the proposed laws for not clearly capturing certain phrases, many of her colleagues argued the changes go too far in limiting free speech.
Pressed during a snap hearing into the bill on Monday on whether phrases such as “globalise the intifada” and “from the river to the sea” would meet the threshold of the new offence, department officials said the laws were not designed to prohibit a list of specific statements.
Liberal members have also said the bill was unlikely to get approval from the Coalition party room in its current form due to fears the new racial hatred offence goes too far in infringing on religious freedoms.
The Nationals are opposed to the gun reform elements of the proposal.
The legislation includes measures to introduce a gun buyback scheme, strengthen background checks for gun owners, grant greater powers to cancel or reject visas and create a regime to ban designated hate groups.
Labor does not necessarily need the Coalition’s support and could instead cut a deal with the Greens to pass the bill.
The Greens have not settled on a formal position on the bill but are supportive of proposals to broaden the promoting hatred component to also cover minority groups.
Meanwhile, Nationals MP Michael McCormack told ABC’s 7.30 that while his party had not yet met it appeared the Nationals would vote against the bill.
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Greens deal in play as Coalition backs away from Labor’s hate and gun reforms (By Clare Armstrong and Maani Truu, ABC News)
