Australia Recalls Parliament for Urgent Hate Speech & Gun Law Debate

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has recalled parliament two weeks early to debate new legislation in response to the Bondi terror attack. Here’s what you need to know: The government will attempt to pass two bills today focused on gun reform and hate speech. The legislation was originally proposed as a single bill, but opposition from the Coalition and the Greens on anti-vilification laws forced the government to split the bill and separate the hate speech laws from gun reforms. The government ditched the contentious anti-vilification provisions, which included a new offence for promoting hatred. Civil society groups warned the proposed laws would curtail free speech. Labor MPs and Jewish leaders are worried that Islamic hate preachers will be let off the hook under the decision to remove the anti-vilification laws. The House of Representatives is expected to debate gun reform this morning before moving on to hate speech laws this afternoon. The Senate will meet at 2pm and begin with question time. Votes on gun reform are expected at 6.30pm and for hate laws at 10pm. Watch parliament live below. Independent Zali Steggall says her community of Warringah in Sydney is worried about the growing number of guns in dense urban areas, and called for a national online register of firearm owners. “How many guns are actually in our communities?” she said. “In 2026, Australia still does not have a national digital firearms register. Instead, we rely on a paper-based system. I mean, that is ludicrous. “It’s outdated, ineffective, and, quite frankly, incredibly, just unacceptable. Without a proper digital system, we do not truly know how many guns exist, where they are, and who has access to them at a time of heightened social tension, increasing online radicalisation, a domestic violence crisis,” she said. “This is not the USA, this is Australia. We want genuinely strong gun controls. So whilst I will support this legislation, I urge the government to go further and ensure that background checks properly assess the risk and safety of all Australians.” Efforts to create a national firearms register after the Port Arthur shooting have lagged for decades. A national register is planned to begin mid-2028. Several Coalition MPs have spoken this morning rejecting the gun reforms and demanding the government focus instead on Islamic extremism following the Bondi attack. Israeli President Isaac Herzog is expected to visit Australia from February 7, according to reports in the Israeli media. Herzog is set to begin his visit in Sydney, where he will visit Bondi Beach to pay tribute to the victims of the December 14 terror attack on a Hanukkah event, according to The Times of Israel. Federal parliament is sitting the following week, meaning he could also visit Canberra. It is unclear whether he will be invited to address parliament. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese formally invited Herzog to visit Australia in December, a move that was welcomed by major Jewish groups, who said it would provide comfort to a community mourning the deaths of 15 innocent lives. Labor Friends of Palestine, a group of Labor members that supports the creation of a Palestinian state, wrote to Albanese earlier this month urging him to rescind the invitation for Herzog to visit Australia. “Should Herzog enter Australia, the Australian Federal Police should urgently investigate him for alleged incitement of genocide, and complicity in war crimes and crimes against humanity,” the group wrote in the letter. Coalition MPs on a key parliamentary committee examining the government’s legislative response to the Bondi massacre have issued a scathing verdict on proposed new gun restrictions and hate crimes offences. The parliamentary committee on security and intelligence, a prestigious body which usually publishes bipartisan recommendations on national security policy, has experienced a rare Labor-Coalition split. MPs on the committee held a short inquiry on the Combatting Antisemitism, Hate and Extremism Bill 2026 last week. In a dissenting judgement on the bill written by Coalition MPs on the committee, they said the draft legislation was “poorly drafted, unclear in its operation, insufficiently safeguarded and inadequately consulted on”. “The compressed timeframe constrained the committee’s ability to gather and test evidence in the manner expected of an independent parliamentary scrutiny body. This concern was reflected almost uniformly in submissions and witness evidence,” the opposition MPs said. Nationals deputy leader Kevin Hogan has exploded at government MPs as he stood in the chamber to oppose the gun laws. He began his comments by labelling the events of December 14 as an Islamic terrorist attack, but broke off. “I got sighs [from Labor MPs],” he shouted. “You cannot say Islamic extremism to people on the other side of this chamber without getting sighs. What happened in Bondi was an extremist attack in this country, that’s what happened. That’s what we need to be talking about.” An animated David Littleproud has taken the floor in the House, labelling the gun bill as a “cheap political diversion”. “We do not have a gun problem, we have a radical Islam problem,” the Nationals leader said. Littleproud, who came out against the proposed changes almost immediately when they were announced days after the Bondi massacre, said his party supported some provisions but they went too far. “One element of this bill that we will support is the ASIO checks. In fact, we supported a national gun register that could have been put in place if [the government] had already put it in place [when] that was agreed to nearly two years ago,” he said. “Instead, what they are trying to do is demonise [legal] gun owners for a cause that did not take place because of them. “This is a failure of process, not a failure of gun licensing. The fact is, the authorities did not act and take away the license and the weapons, as they should.” Shadow attorney-general Andrew Wallace said the Coalition opposes the government’s “fundamentally flawed” gun reform, saying the government was showing contempt for law-abiding firearm owners. “These measures are poorly constructed, inadequately justified, and unlikely to achieve their stated objectives,” Wallace told the House of Representatives. “Instead, they impose disproportionate burdens on lawful firearm owners, importers, wholesalers and retailers as well as primary producers and state and territory governments. “To the detriment of the bill, the government has chosen a reactive, politically driven approach to the preparation of these proposed laws, rather than a careful, judicious, evidence-based process Australians would legitimately expect in such a highly regulated policy area.” Wallace said the Coalition would attempt to launch a Senate inquiry into the reforms, though it would need the support of the Greens to do so. Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke has tabled the government’s first bill – which focuses on guns and customs reform – and begun today’s debate. This bill is expected to pass with the Greens’ support, and will establish a federal gun buyback, provisions for greater information sharing between security agencies, and tougher controls on firearm imports. Hate reforms will be debated separately. “The terrorists who killed 15 people on that horrible day had hate in their hearts and guns in their hands. The tragic events at Bondi demand a comprehensive response from government,” Burke said. “We must deal with the motivation of hatred and the method, the firearms, that the attackers used to devastate so many lives.” Burke used the opportunity to reject suggestions the reforms would not have stopped the Bondi massacre by limiting the number of firearms available to the shooters. “If this national reform package had already been in place, how many firearms would the Bondi gunmen have held? Would it be six? Would it be five? Would it be four? The answer is zero. The father would have been ineligible because he was not a citizen. “The firearms that they were using would not have been available to them, and the son, who didn’t have a firearms licence, in any event, had he tried, any intelligence holdings with respect to him, would have formed part of the licensing decisions.” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has recalled parliament two weeks early to debate new legislation in response to the Bondi terror attack. Here’s what you need to know: The government will attempt to pass two bills today focused on gun reform and hate speech. The legislation was originally proposed as a single bill, but opposition from the Coalition and the Greens on anti-vilification laws forced the government to split the bill and separate the hate speech laws from gun reforms. The government ditched the contentious anti-vilification provisions, which included a new offence for promoting hatred. Civil society groups warned the proposed laws would curtail free speech. Labor MPs and Jewish leaders are worried that Islamic hate preachers will be let off the hook under the decision to remove the anti-vilification laws. The House of Representatives is expected to debate gun reform this morning before moving on to hate speech laws this afternoon. The Senate will meet at 2pm and begin with question time. Votes on gun reform are expected at 6.30pm and for hate laws at 10pm. Watch parliament live below. One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce said he told his colleagues to heed the responsibility of being a “serious party”, while refusing to criticise leader Pauline Hanson for wearing a burqa in the Senate – a stunt that saw her banned for seven sitting days and prohibited from debating today’s hate reforms. Joyce joined One Nation after a drawn-out defection from the Nationals last year, where he had previously been the leader and deputy prime minister. He said the polls – including this masthead’s, which showed yesterday One Nation had hit a record high – demonstrated Australians were willing to give his new party a chance. “I think we are getting there, and the polling reflects that,” he said. “It is an awesome responsibility. And I’ve said that to my colleagues in One Nation, that … the Australian people are going to have a more forensic look at you, and you have to understand the incredible responsibility – which they do – of the mantle of being taken as a serious party, holding the government to account.” Asked about Hanson’s burqa stunt, Joyce said: “I’m not going to start advising people. I’m certainly not going to do it on television.” Joyce added that One Nation would be standing in every seat at the next election. “I don’t think there’s a particular targeting [of seats]. The Australian people have a right to have a choice in every seat, not one or two or three – in every seat,” he said. Queensland will not back the Albanese government’s national gun buyback scheme, landing another blow to the prime minister’s proposed suite of reforms to be rushed through parliament in response to last month’s Bondi Beach terror attack. Premier David Crisafulli’s cabinet resolved yesterday to introduce new laws when state parliament resumes next month in response to the antisemitic attack, though it was not yet clear what this suite of measures would include. This masthead was told, however, the LNP government had agreed it would not support the federal buyback scheme, and would instead consider measures presented to cabinet by state Attorney-General Deb Frecklington and Police Minister Dan Purdie. “We will continue to calmly and methodically work through these complex issues to ensure we get this response right,” a government spokesman said after cabinet had concluded yesterday. “We also must never be distracted from the core issue of antisemitism and, as a state, we must continue to stand up to the formidable antisemitic forces that were unleashed on Bondi.” Read the full story.