Anthony Albanese has made a shock change to his controversial legislation on guns and hate crimes, just days before it was set to be introduced into Parliament.
In a snap press conference on Saturday, the Prime Minister said he will split the Bill in two to ensure the new gun laws pass through Parliament, after the Coalition and Greens made it clear they would not support proposed changes to hate speech laws.
The legislation, which was drafted in the wake of the Bondi Beach terrorist attack, will be introduced to the House on Tuesday.
‘We will separate out the bills – the gun laws will be separate and then the laws on hate crimes and migration will proceed,’ Albanese said.
‘But we will not be proceeding with the racial vilification provisions because it’s clear that it won’t have support.
‘We will only proceed with measures that have the support of the Parliament.’
Albanese called on the Coalition to ‘come up with what their position is’.
He added: ‘We want to know what their position is on these measures because… we don’t want there to be an ongoing debate of conflict.’
Anthony Albanese (pictured on Saturday) said the government will abandon the racial vilification provisions as they would not have the support of Parliament
Opposition leader Sussan Ley (pictured) said the legislation is ‘pretty unsalvageable’ after refusing to support the new hate laws
Federal MPs will debate the proposed new gun laws in Parliament on Tuesday, which includes a national gun buyback scheme as set up after the Port Arthur massacre
Opposition Leader Sussan Ley previously described the legislation as ‘pretty unsalvageable’.
‘Laws of this seriousness demand precision, confidence and clarity,’ she said.
‘Now, the opposition will continue to scrutinise this legislation carefully but from what we have seen so far, it looks pretty unsalvageable. As it stands, the government’s proposal is half-baked and Australians deserve far better.’
She said the Coalition would seek to advance their own package of measures when parliament meets.
‘Under our package, our message to those who preach hatred, who preach radical Islamic extremist hatred, glorify terrorism or incite violence, it’s very clear – if you’re not an Australian citizen, you will be deported and if you are an Australian citizen, you will be arrested,’ Ley said.
‘That is what we will be seeking to achieve when the parliament returns.
‘The parliament has to eradicate anti-Semitism and remove radical Islam. Those are our tests.’
Just hours before Albanese announced the Bill would be split, Greens leader Larissa Waters said the legislation needed a ‘huge amount of work’ to pass.
Greens leader Larissa Waters said the party is ‘willing to work with Labor to find a way forward on laws to combat hate in our communities’ but couldn’t support the current Bill
‘The rest of the omnibus Bill however needs too much reworking to meet community concerns. We need to keep all people in the community safe from discrimination and hatred, but good laws don’t come from rushed work,’ she wrote on X.
‘With each passing hour, more concerns are raised by legal experts, faith groups and communities. The Greens won’t support laws that may risk criminalising legitimate political expression.
‘The risk of unintended consequences is too great to rush passage of this legislation.’
Labor said the original Bill, which included criminalising hate speech, creating a new ‘hate group’ listing, establishing a gun buyback and introducing new grounds to reject or cancel visas, would strengthen national security and national unity.
However, free speech advocates and human rights watchers questioned whether adding the concept of ‘hatred’ in speech to criminal law could be too open to interpretation by the courts.
They said the racial vilification provisions, which have now been abandoned, would require a court to find that an individual charged with that crime had ‘intent’ to cause hatred, and that the conduct would cause a ‘reasonable’ person from that targeted group to ‘fear harassment, intimidation or violence, or for their safety.’
Concerns were also raised about the new listing for ‘hate groups’, which would criminalise membership or support of a designated organisation, with some suggesting the definition is so broad it could capture academics and journalists.
