Laws to ban hate groups and establish a national gun buyback scheme have passed the Senate after the Albanese Government struck separate deals with the Liberals and Greens to legislate its response to the Bondi Beach massacre. Source: The Guardian.
The two bills were rushed through on Tuesday night at the end of a special two-day sitting to deal with the political fallout to the December 14 shooting.
The hate speech laws divided the Coalition, with the Nationals splitting from the Liberals to oppose what leader David Littleproud described as a “mess” that “over-reached”.
With Mr Littleproud watching on from the Senate chamber, the Nationals Senate leader, Bridget McKenzie, accused the Government of “trashing the normal process of parliamentary scrutiny in a vain attempt to secure a fleeting political win”.
After several of their amendments were rejected, the four Nationals senators joined the Greens, One Nation, David Pocock, Fatima Payman, Tammy Tyrrell, Ralph Babet and Liberal Alex Antic in opposing the bill, which passed 38 votes to 22.
In a statement, Mr Littleproud said the country party’s decision, which was reached after more than half-a-dozen party room meetings across Monday and Tuesday, “does not reflect on the relationship” with the Liberals.
The split occurred despite Shadow Cabinet – of which Mr Littleproud and Senator McKenzie are members – resolving on Sunday night to thrash out a deal with Labor.
The laws allow the minister to ban hate groups, including neo-Nazis and Islamist organisation Hizb ut-Tahrir, increase penalties for so-called hate preachers who advocate or threaten violence and expand powers to revoke or refuse visas for people with extremist views coming to Australia.
After Ms Ley last week described the original bill as “unsalvageable”, Liberal MPs agreed to support its passage after Mr Albanese dropped the contentious anti-racial vilification provision and accepted several other amendments.
The changes include expanding a new aggravated offence for hate preachers to also capture guest speakers, requiring two-yearly reviews of the laws by parliament’s Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security and ensuring the opposition leader is consulted on both the listing and de-listing of hate groups.
The Greens provided the numbers for the Government to pass separate gun laws.
The Nationals unsuccessfully pushed for several amendments before joining with the Liberals to oppose the bill, which they characterised as an unjustified attack on law-abiding gun owners.
FULL STORY
Labor’s hate speech laws pass Senate in late-night vote as Nationals split from Liberals to oppose bill (By Tom McIlroy and Dan Jervis-Bardy, The Guardian)
