Hate Laws Reform: Labor and Coalition Nearing Agreement

A deal with the Coalition to pass the remnants of the government's hate law reforms appears within reach, despite ongoing debate within the opposition as parliament returns for day two of a special sitting called in response to the Bondi terror attack. Liberal MPs gathered to discuss the draft laws at a party room meeting in Canberra last night after Opposition Leader Sussan Ley and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese met to hash out an agreement to pass the laws today, as the government had planned. A senior Liberal told the ABC there was a pathway to a deal on the changes to hate laws, with only a couple of issues remaining. Labor had initially sought to push through its sweeping legislative response to the Bondi terror attack in a single bill that included updates to gun and hate laws. But after both the Coalition and the Greens refused to back the legislation, Labor split the two issues into separate bills and dropped the most contentious element of its proposal to update hate laws — a new offence that would have made it illegal to promote or incite racial hatred. Legal experts, religious leaders, the Coalition and the Greens all raised concerns about the clause, including that it had the potential to hamper freedom of speech, while Jewish groups largely backed the proposal. Remaining reforms include stronger deportation powers, tougher penalties for existing hate crimes perpetrated by preachers or leaders and a new process to ban groups that spread hate but are not captured as terrorist groups under existing law, such as neo-Nazi groups and Hizb ut-Tahrir. The ABC understands the Liberal Party has agreed to amendments to Labor's bill, including stronger aggravated offences for so-called hate preachers to ensure visiting speakers are captured, mandatory two-year reviews of the new laws, a more targeted approach to the new hate group listing regime and a requirement that the opposition leader is consulted on the listing and delisting of extremist groups. Some inside the Nationals party room oppose the entire concept of banning so-called hate groups, though others are on board with the Liberals’ bid to raise the threshold for listing organisations. It is understood the Nationals are still considering the details of the bill. The newly separated bills are expected to be introduced and debated on Tuesday, but Labor ministers have suggested the hate laws may not proceed unless the Coalition agrees in advance after the Greens said they would not support the laws in their existing form. Mr Albanese yesterday said the abandoned hate speech offence would not be revisited. "If the parliament changes, then the laws can change. But you deal with the parliament that the Australian people voted for," Mr Albanese said. The separate package of gun law reform includes stricter checks during firearm license applications and the establishment of a national gun buyback scheme. Those laws are expected to pass, with the Greens over the weekend reiterating their support for that element of the government's reform. Emotional scenes on first day of parliament The negotiations took place against a sombre backdrop on Monday, when politicians in both houses took turns paying tribute to the victims of December's attack, which targeted a Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach and left 15 people dead. Family members of the victims and Jewish community leaders sat in the public gallery as Mr Albanese used the condolence motion to recite the names of those killed and vowed to take action to ensure "an atrocity such as this can never happen again". "That responsibility starts with me as Australia's 31st prime minister," he said. "It also belongs to each of us here in this chamber as parliamentarians and it is a task for all of us as Australians to build social cohesion, to reject division and prejudice in all of its forms." Ms Ley paid tributes to the victims while taking aim at the government, declaring that Jewish Australians were owed an apology for the time it took the prime minister to call a royal commission into the massacre. "I was there [at Bondi beach] every day for a week. You had to be present to actually feel the grief, the pain, the bewilderment, and, yes, the anger," she said. "We must unite as a parliament to confront and defeat this evil. To do so, we must face uncomfortable truths. Radical Islamist extremism caused this … if you can't name the problem, you can't possibly defeat it." Jewish Labor MP Mark Dreyfus delivered an emotional speech in which he described the attack as a moment of "unimaginable horror and grief" that would test "the quiet assumptions of safety, decency, and mutual care that distinguish Australia's values". "Our response cannot be confined to grief," he said. "It must extend to what we choose to defend and how we defend it … you don't have to be Jewish to feel this in your chest. An attack like this hurts all of us." Liberal frontbencher Julian Leeser, who is also Jewish, named "neo-Nazi groups … radical Islamists … [and] the cultural left" as three sources of antisemitism and called for "cultural change" to tackle the issue more seriously. "It would be tempting to conclude with something poetic, or sacred — a call, as it were, to give us hope. I can't do that, but I will finish with a warning: we cannot continue the 800 days of neglect," he said. Greens leader Larissa Waters said "the heinous acts of two men cannot be allowed to become a catalyst for more hate and division" and that the parliament should condemn "all forms of hate and intolerance". She and deputy leader Mehreen Faruqi both drew comparisons to the 2019 Christchurch attack, in which an Australian man killed 51 Muslims at a mosque in the New Zealand city. "Even in moments of deep grief there are voices that seek to divide us, to politicise loss, to police grief and to sow further hatred. We must reject that path," Senator Faruqi said.