Australian Parliament Reconvenes for Bondi Attack Condolences & Royal Visit News

The House of Representatives has returned today to debate condolence motions after the December 14 Bondi shooting. We will bring you live updates from the key speeches made throughout the day. You can watch the proceedings live below. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has let slip that he expects an official state visit from Tasmanian-born Queen of Denmark, Mary, sometime this year. The prime minister told his close friend, Sydney radio host Kyle Sandilands, that the Danish monarch and her husband, King Frederik X, would soon be flying to Australia. “Queen Mary is coming here,” he said on KIIS FM this morning. “She’ll be here – I’m not sure that we’re publicly released the dates, but it’s quite exciting. Queen Mary and King Frederik.” The 53-year-old, who acceded to the throne in January two years ago, has returned home for private holidays almost annually since marrying into the royal family 20 years ago, and was spotted enjoying the sunshine at Bronte Beach in Sydney last year with her teenage daughter, Princess Josephine, and her long-time friend and bridesmaid, Amber Petty. Amalienborg Palace, the official home of the Danish royal family, is yet to confirm the visit. National correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age Rob Harris penned an analysis on Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s response to the Bondi shooting on December 14. Here’s an extract of his analysis: Anthony Albanese’s handling of the Bondi terror attack has shattered a central promise of his prime ministership: that he could be trusted to lead when it mattered. At moments of national trauma, leaders are judged less on ideology than on instinct, clarity over cleverness, authority over tactics. On that test, a majority of Australians now believe Albanese failed. More than half of respondents in the latest Resolve Monitor poll – 56 per cent – rate his response to Bondi as poor. Just 32 per cent say it was good. It is a savage assessment of a leader who, until recently, had prided himself on being trusted and steady. You can read the full piece here. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has said the government will continue its push to ban controversial Islamic organisation Hizb ut-Tahrir despite watered-down legislation making the effort harder. “The truth is that getting rid of the racial vilification laws makes it more difficult, but we’ll be banning them because they’re an organisation which promote hatred as an organisation as part of their ideology,” Albanese told ABC Sydney this morning. The government’s original omnibus antisemitism bill, which included hate speech and gun reforms in a single piece of legislation, did not win the support of the Coalition or the Greens. Labor needs the support of either group to pass the legislation in the Senate. Loading Two separate pieces of legislation going to the same areas are set to be introduced into Parliament this afternoon. Hate speech provisions have been watered down in the new offering. Albanese said Hizb ut-Tahrir should have been banned earlier, but “the law didn’t allow us to do so”. “We list as terrorist organisations a range of explicit organisations such as Hezbollah, that makes it illegal for the display of Hezbollah flags for people to be members or engage with Hezbollah,” Albanese said. “This organisation, that essentially has a very dangerous ideological position, promotes extremism … we want to have the power to be able to list it and to outlaw it,” he said. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has said he is worried by the rise in popularity of One Nation, saying the party appeals to “grievance” and its members are a “pretty divisive lot”, as the minor party soars in the polls. “I’m a believer in mainstream politics, and that the parties of government are important. I’ve served this country pretty well. I look at overseas where you have a real fragmentation, and you might have five or six parties in government, and it’s unstable,” Albanese told KIIS FM this morning. “Italy, of course, was famous for a while. They’re changing governments every year. And so, I mean, it’s a reality that the Coalition in particular have to deal with. I think that they need to stand for some positive things as well,” he said. In the most recent Resolve Political Monitor from this masthead, One Nation was polling at 18 per cent of the primary vote, a record high for the party. Speaking about today’s proceedings, Albanese said the government was “focused on getting weapons off the street”. “We are focused as well on what we can do to lower the temperature, stop antisemitism, these hate laws that we have before the parliament. Not all of them will receive support. I think that’s unfortunate. But, we took the recommendations of the envoy on antisemitism, and we’re about implementing them,” he said. Minister for Health Mark Butler said Australia was considering US President Donald Trump’s invitation to join his “board of peace” initiative aimed at resolving conflicts globally, including rebuilding Gaza. “We’re considering that request, we only just received it,” Butler told Nine’s Today. “It’s important to remind you … that this was endorsed by the UN Security Council. We welcome President Trump’s plan for peace in Gaza,” Butler said. “I think everyone across the world wants to see an end to that conflict and appealing. So we’ll go through that process of talking with our allies in the US administration about that request.” The leaders of France, Germany, Italy, Hungary, Canada, the European Commission and key Middle East powers were also among those invited. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, a close ally of Trump, was the only leader to immediately accept. With Bloomberg One Nation’s newest recruit, former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce, said he was humbled by poll results showing growing support for One Nation, but not surprised. “I get overwhelmed with the support One Nation is getting. I think it’s even stronger in regional areas,” Joyce told Seven’s Sunrise. “And people have always wanted a license – because they are concerned that politics these days is about looking after some groups at the expense of the Australian population in general. They want a dynamic change.” Loading During the final sitting day of last year, former Nationals MP Joyce resigned from the party that he once led during a speech in the House of Representatives. He later formally announced his membership to One Nation. This masthead’s Resolve Political Monitor revealed today that One Nation’s primary vote has surged to 18 per cent, its strongest result on record. Environment Minister Murray Watt said congratulations were in order for Joyce becoming “the opposition leader” as One Nation closed in on the Coalition. Health Minister Mark Butler said volatility in the polls was to be expected after a national tragedy, while shadow attorney-general Andrew Wallace said he was “of course” worried about the Coalition bleeding support to One Nation. Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of the first parliamentary sitting day of the year. My name is Nick Newling, and I’ll be taking you through today’s events. Loading Federal parliament was originally slated to return on February 3, two weeks from tomorrow, but was recalled early by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to urgently pass hate speech and gun control reforms in response to the Bondi shooting on December 14. Today’s proceedings will be dominated by condolence motions for the 15 victims of the attack. Proceedings are expected to begin at 9:30am. It is expected that Attorney-General Michelle Rowland will table two separate bills this afternoon on guns and hate speech after the government was forced to split their omnibus Combatting Antisemitism, Hate and Extremism Bill which found no support from the Coalition and the Greens. We will bring you live updates as the day unfolds.