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‘Tomorrow or nothing?’: PM issues ultimatum on Bondi reforms as parliament returns
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‘Tomorrow or nothing?’: PM issues ultimatum on Bondi reforms as parliament returns

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Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has urged the coalition to back the government’s hate speech laws or risk seeing them abandoned forever.
On Monday, Parliament returned two weeks ahead of schedule to introduce a series of reforms in response to the Bondi terror attack.
The government was forced to split his sweeping omnibus bill – including gun laws, hate crimes, migration changes – and the scrapping of racist smear provisions on Saturday, after it became clear that neither the Coalition nor the Greens supported the changes.
Late last week, opposition leader Sussan Ley said the reforms in their current form were “half-baked” and “irreparable.”
Albanians have hit back, demanding the coalition explain why it will not support laws recommended by anti-Semitism envoy Jillian Segal in her report. plan to combat anti-Semitismreleased last July.
“It is very much up to the coalition to explain why they said they wanted the report fully implemented,” he told ABC radio Melbourne.
‘And when they had the chance, [they’ve] walked away from it, just as it is up to them to explain why they are calling for parliament to resume and pass all these laws before December.”
When asked if it was “tomorrow or nothing” for the hate speech laws, the Albanian replied “correctly”.
Albanese said he would not introduce laws that clearly do not have majority support in the Senate, only to have them rejected.

The raft of laws is in response to the terror attack in Bondi last month, when two gunmen – who police allege were father and son Sajid and Naveed Akram – opened fire at a Hanukkah event, killing 15 people.

Albanese has asked opposition leader Sussan Ley to explain why she will not support the raft of reforms, especially the anti-hate speech laws recommended by the anti-Semitism envoy. Source: MONKEY / Mick Tsikas

Reforms that would allow extra security checks for people acquiring firearms and introduce a national gun-buying program are expected to pass with the support of the Greens in the House of Lords.

Measures yet to be debated when the bill is introduced include strengthening penalties against people who threaten violence against protected groups, banning hate groups and giving the Home Secretary more powers to revoke or deny visas.

The legislation will be introduced in the Senate on Tuesday.

Prime Minister refuses to expand defamation provisions

The bill originally proposed to make it a crime to “publicly promote or incite hatred” or “disseminate ideas of superiority or hatred toward another person or group of people on the basis of their race, color, or national or ethnic origin.”

Albanians removed the crime of racist defamation from the bill due to a lack of support, despite an attempt to expand its provisions to tackle all forms of hatred, based on race, religion, disability, sexuality or gender.

The expansion was pursued by the Greens and received the support of Jewish groups and frontbenchers Anne Aly, Mark Butler and Josh Burns. It also received the support of Wentworth MP Allegra Spender, who has been advocating for the changes for more than a year.
However, the Prime Minister has made it clear he will not seek to extend hate speech protections beyond Jewish Australians.
“No, we accept that there is no majority for the reforms we are pursuing.”

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