Daily London
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says the federal government will separate parts of its proposed hate speech laws to ensure all elements have the support of the parliament.
The original proposal included a landmark gun buyback scheme, increasing penalties for hate crimes, creating a new offence for hate preachers radicalising children and inciting hatred to intimidate and harass.
The proposal also includes expanding the ban on prohibited symbols and granting more powers for the Home Affairs department to cancel or refuse visas for people who spread hatred.
Albanese said this afternoon he had listened to the Greens concerns.
“The Greens party have engaged in good faith, and I thank them for that, and I had a discussion with Larissa Waters yesterday and she informed me about where they had landed,” he said.
“She informed me she would vote for the gun laws but would not vote for other parts of the legislation.
“In order to ensure passage of these gun laws, we will be separating out schedule 3 and 4 of the bill.
“That is important to deal with customs updates but also to have the national gun buyback scheme along the model that was implemented after the Port Arthur massacre under John Howard.
“We will separate out the bills, the gun laws will be separate and the laws on hate crimes and migration will proceed.
“But we will not be proceeding with the racial vilification provisions because it’s clear that that will not have support.
“We will only proceed with measures that have the support of the parliament and are likely to receive that.”
Waters said in a statement this morning the party would work with the government to pass gun laws but Greens members believed the rest of the bill needed work.
“The Greens are willing to work with the government to pass gun laws next week, but the rest of the omnibus bill needs a huge amount of work,” Waters said.
“With every hour that passes, more concerns are raised by legal experts, faith groups and the community about the omnibus bill.
“This is complex legislation, with a lot of massive pitfalls and omissions, and the process to fix it can’t be rushed.”
Waters argued the federal government should “start fresh with a bill that aims to protect everyone from hatred and discrimination”.
“We are willing to sit down with the government to find a way forward, but it’s clear that the amount of negotiations and legal analysis required to produce a good outcome can’t be done in the extremely tight timeframe the government has created,” she said.
“We need to keep all people in the community safe from discrimination and hatred, and good laws don’t come from rushed work.”
Members of the party have also said the laws should not be used to shut down legitimate political protests.
“The opposition will continue to scrutinise this legislation carefully, but from what we have seen so far, it looks pretty unsalvageable,” Ley said this week.
“As it stands, the government’s proposal is half-baked, and Australians deserve far better.”
Ley claimed the proposed changes do not address the root issue of the Bondi attack.
“We have got this bundle of measures heading in many different directions, criticised in a very valid way by a whole range of people, but not actually addressing the issue,” Ley added.
“Parliament should have been reconvened before Christmas to actually demonstrate leadership, compassion and the determination that I have spoken of every day since to tackle radical Islamic extremism and eradicate antisemitism.”
