By Zac de Silva and Tess Ikonomou
The prime minister has poured cold water on future laws to criminalise racial vilification after dumping the measure from laws rapidly passed in response to the Bondi terror attack.
Hate speech laws were rushed through parliament late on Tuesday night with the aim of restricting radical groups’ scope to incite violence against people based on their faith.
They also make it easier for the government to deport extremists or deny them entry to Australia.
The laws were quickly drafted in response to the December 14 anti-Semitic terror attack at Bondi Beach that left 15 people dead, but a section to introduce a racial vilification offence was dumped to secure Liberal support.
Anthony Albanese pointed to the coalition as the reason why Labor wouldn’t be pursuing the measure, despite a recommendation from Australia’s anti-Semitism envoy and pleas from Jewish groups.
“The Senate is what it is … and if you can’t get support for these laws in the aftermath of a massacre, it is difficult to see people changing their mind,” he told reporters in Canberra on Wednesday.
Pressed if Labor would make changes to the laws if the royal commission into anti-Semitism recommended the action, Mr Albanese deflected responsibility to the opposition.
“It’s a question, not for me … it’s a question for the coalition,” he said.
The government’s bill went through with the support of most Liberals during a late-night Senate sitting, but the Nationals voted against it after raising concerns about its potential impacts on freedom of speech.
The cross-party agreement was only reached after last-minute negotiations between Labor and Liberal leaders and weeks of fractious political debate.
Greens justice spokesperson David Shoebridge, whose party voted against the measures, said there were real concerns the laws would target political criticism, particularly from those who opposed Israel’s actions in Gaza.
“We couldn’t support the hate speech bill because the government hasn’t said what conduct they want to ban, which groups they want to ban, who they’re targeting,” he said.
Liberal senator Alex Antic also crossed the floor to oppose the bill, while Northern Territory senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, who sits in the Liberal party room, abstained.
Thomas Sewell, head of the neo-Nazi group the National Socialist Network, is raising money to challenge the laws.
The group, which has been involved in a number of increasingly public stunts calling for a white Australia, has said it will disband because of the provisions.
Multiple Jewish groups have backed the hate crimes legislation as a welcome first step in cracking down on inflammatory language, but they believe it could go further.
Zionist Federation of Australia president Jeremy Leibler said the measures to shut down hate groups, which would likely include the National Socialist Network and radical Islamist organisation Hizb ut-Tahrir, were a good move.
But he said Labor should revisit the introduction of new criminal offences for racial hatred.
“I don’t think that we as a society can afford to abandon the possibility of strengthening hate speech laws,” he said.
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