Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will not pursue racial vilification reform despite criticism from Labor MPs and the recommendation of his own antisemitism envoy, blaming the government’s abandonment of the changes on not being able to control the Senate. Source: The Age.
The Government drafted ambitious hate speech laws – a contentious area that previous governments have also failed to change – to crack down on the promotion of hate and racial supremacy following the Bondi Beach massacre.
But Mr Albanese ditched the measures last week in the face of opposition from the Coalition, which refused to back them over free speech concerns, and the Greens, which wanted the focus on race to be expanded to protect other marginalised groups.
“The Senate is what it is, and if you can’t get support for these laws in the aftermath of a massacre, it is difficult to see people changing,” Mr Albanese told reporters yesterday.
“I’m not sure how many senators we’ve got, but if you can add another 10 people, get them to join the Labor Party, then, you know, come back to me.”
Mr Albanese said it was now “a matter of maths”.
“I’m a pragmatic political leader, I’m into getting real things done,” he said.
Frustrated Labor MPs who have long supported anti-vilification laws said on Monday that the hate speech laws were crucial to the legislation. One Labor member, speaking on the condition of anonymity to criticise Mr Albanese, said: “The Prime Minister is going against the will of the caucus.”
The government also committed to the reform by promising to fully implement antisemitism envoy Jillian Segal’s report following the Bondi attack, which recommended creating a serious vilification offence for the public promotion of hatred and antisemitic sentiment.
“We stood with the Jewish community to support the recommendations of the special envoy on antisemitism,” Mr Albanese said. “It’s up to [the Coalition] to explain how it is that they called every day, demanded parliament to come back and pass these laws in a day … when they saw them, they didn’t vote for them. They voted against them.”
FULL STORY
Albanese blames Senate for Labor abandoning hate speech reform (By Brittany Busch, The Age)
