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‘Fundamentally different’: Jewish group joins push to split hate crimes law
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‘Fundamentally different’: Jewish group joins push to split hate crimes law

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The government is under pressure to separate hate crime laws from gun reform ahead of parliament’s early return to pass the legislation next week.
The peak body for Jewish Australians has joined opposition calls to break the complex legislation, despite Prime Minister Anthony Albanese reiterating that the bill needed to address multiple issues at once.
“The terrorists at Bondi Beach had hatred in their heads but guns in their hands, and this bill will solve both problems,” he told reporters on Tuesday.
On Sunday, December 14, at 6:41 p.m., two armed men were attacked, which police allege were father and son Sajid and Naveed Akram – parked a car near a walkway overlooking Arthur Park in Bondi Beach, where a Hanukkah event had begun earlier that evening, and opened fire, killing fifteen people.

Speaking to SBS News, Peter Wertheim, co-CEO of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, expressed concern that the broad scope “jeopardizes the passage of the legislation”.

“I think it would have been wiser to split them up,” Wertheim said.
“I know the argument will be made that they are both about combating hate and extremism, and in a broad sense that is true, but when you get into the details of what these provisions are all about, they are about fundamentally different topics.”

Wertheim also praised the government for many “positive features,” including adding a framework to criminalize hate groups and a new serious defamation crime, which could see anyone inciting hatred on the basis of race receive a five-year prison sentence.

Coalition criticism of gun laws

Senator Bridget McKenzie, a gun owner, has criticized the removal of firearms from ordinary Australians following an attack inspired by the self-proclaimed Islamic State (IS).
“Unfortunately the Prime Minister has chosen to play politics with this bill. He has conflated migration changes with gun control and of course hate speech laws,” she told ABC’s Radio National on Wednesday morning.

“And if you look at the problem we’re trying to solve here: Islamic terrorists shot Australian Jewish people. This was an attack on our Australian Jewish community. Taking guns away from law-abiding citizens is not the right answer.”

Labor MP Josh Burns, who is Jewish, says it is time for the opposition to show its criticism of hate and anti-Semitism within parliament.
“These words will ring very hollow if the Liberal Party doesn’t come and support us,” Burns told ABC’s Radio National on Wednesday morning.

He said it was important that not only were hate crimes “banned and penalties increased”, but that firearms were also banned from people who should not have access to them.

Concerns over ‘hasty’ review of hate speech law

The government was criticized by the opposition last month for its response to the Bondi attack and faced community backlash over delays in calling a royal commission into anti-Semitism.
Now criticism is being leveled at the shortened timeframe for consulting and reviewing hate speech laws.

The Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security has less than a week to review the laws, with the usually secretive committee holding public hearings to receive evidence from relevant agencies.

The Australian Federation of Islamic Councils (AFIC) has hit back at the 72-hour consultation period and called on the government to delay tabling the legislation until a more inclusive consultation, given the “broad impact they could have on the Muslim community”.
The group’s concerns include a lack of clarity and possible overreach of the new criminal sanctions, concerns that specific communities are being targeted by the legislation and the failure to include religion among the new defamation crimes.
“If legislation is truly intended to address hate in all its forms, then the communities most likely to be affected must have a seat at the table, not as an afterthought, but as true partners in shaping the response,” AFIC said in a statement.

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