By Farid Farid in Sydney

Local councils will be on the frontline of shutting down illegal religious centres so preachers won’t be given a platform to spew hate speech.

The NSW government will give councils the ability to cut off utilities for a place of public worship operating without the necessary planning approval.

The reforms come after the Bondi massacre where 15 people were killed when two gunmen, a father and a son, targeted a Jewish gathering celebrating Hanukkah in an Islamic State-inspired terror attack.

Naveed Akram, 24, who faces 59 charges including 15 counts of murder was associated with extremist Islamist preacher in western Sydney Wissam Haddad.

His centre, Al Madina Dawah, was shut down by Canterbury-Bankstown council in December.

NSW Premier Chris Minns said the latest powers are aimed at protecting social cohesion and keeping communities safe from divisive rhetoric and religious extremism.

“There is no place in NSW for hate, intimidation or extremism masquerading as community activity,” he said on Monday.

“This reform is aimed squarely at shutting down ‘factories of hate’ – places that operate unlawfully while promoting hatred, intimidation or division within the community.”

Police and the planning department will support councils in enforcing the laws.

Councils will also be required to consult with NSW Police on community safety matters before approving new places of public worship.

The changes comes as federal parliament is recalled before Australia Day, where Anthony Albanese is set to expand hate laws to tackle extremist speech.

These include aggravated hate speech offences for preachers and leaders who promote violence, and listing centres and groups engaging in racial hatred.

Narrow federal offences for serious vilification based on race or advocating racial supremacy will also be introduced.

Three sermons by Mr Haddad in late 2023 contained “devastatingly offensive” imputations that were based on the race or ethnicity of the Australian Jewish community, the Federal Court ruled in July.

But it was more than Mr Haddad’s words that led to the centre’s undoing, with the council saying it was operating from a decades-old building never permitted for use as a religious centre.

Ahead of the racial discrimination case which he lost, the defiant preacher told AAP “if people have an issue with the (religious) reference that I’m bringing … then they should take this up with God, not me.”