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New hate speech laws urgently drafted following the Bondi Beach massacre will be debated in parliament next week.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced on Monday he would recall the federal parliament on January 19 ahead of its scheduled return on February 2.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Thursday. Credit: AAP
“I will write this afternoon to the Speaker of the House of Representatives for parliament to be recalled next Monday and Tuesday, both the House of Representatives and the Senate,” Albanese told reporters in Canberra.
He said the Coalition had agreed on wording for the condolence motion to be debated in both houses on Monday, and he expected the debate to be completed in one day, despite the complication.
“The motion will unequivocally condemn the terrorist atrocity perpetrated at Bondi Beach and commit our parliament to eradicating the evil of antisemitism,” he said.
Hate speech legislation – the combatting antisemitism, hate and extremism bill – will be debated on Tuesday.
Minister for Home Affairs Tony Burke has previously said the new hate speech legislation would push the limits of the Constitution, and his department has rushed to draft laws over the summer that would withstand being challenged in the High Court.
It’s a comprehensive package of reforms which creates serious offences for hate preachers and leaders seeking to radicalise young Australians,” Albanese said.
“It increases the penalties for hate crimes offences and ensures that offenders whose crimes were motivated by extremism had that factored into their sentencing. It creates a new offence for inciting hatred in order to intimidate or harass.
“It expands and strengthens the ban on prohibited symbols, and it makes it easier for the Minister for Home Affairs to cancel or refuse a visa for people intent on spreading hatred, and it creates a new framework that will enable the Minister for Home Affairs to list organisations as prohibited hate groups. Once an organisation is listed, it will be a criminal offence to be a member, to recruit for it, to donate or receive funds or support that group in any way.”
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The prime minister said legislation would also set up the national gun buyback scheme, “bringing Australia’s world-leading gun laws into the 21st century and getting guns off our streets”.
Attorney-General Michelle Rowland said the laws would be the “toughest hate laws Australia has ever seen”.
Rowland said the new racial vilification offence would be punishable by a maximum penalty of five years imprisonment.
Burke said he, as the minister responsible for immigration, would have greater powers to refuse visas.
“At the moment, I also have to test each time whether someone is coming on a public speaking tour, or the extent to which someone might cause social discord. This draws a line in the sand and says racial bigotry of itself is a reason to be able to refuse a visa,” he said.
Burke named two groups - neo Nazis and Hizb ut Tahrir, saying “they were called out last year by Mike Burgess, the director general of ASIO, for the real harm that they do to our national security,” and that despite the direct impact they had on national security, they had kept below the threshold for prosecution.
“For a while, they have created a pathway for others to engage in violence, have been careful to not explicitly call for it themselves. They’ve kept themselves just below that threshold. This bill will lower that threshold, and lower that threshold to the extent that we can within the constitution.”
More to come.
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