SYDNEY: Australia’s national parliament will cut short its summer break to pass laws tackling hate speech after the Bondi Beach mass shooting, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Monday (Jan 12), as concerns were also expressed over free speech.
The Dec 14 shooting in Sydney that killed 15 people at a Jewish Hanukkah celebration sparked nationwide calls to tackle antisemitism. Police say the alleged gunmen were inspired by the Islamic State militant group.
The federal parliament will return next Monday, and Albanese said he wanted legislation to step up penalties for hate speech and authorise a gun buyback to pass the following day.
Australians were entitled to express different views about the Middle East, he told reporters in Canberra.
“What they are not entitled to do, is to hold someone to account for the actions of others because they are a young boy wearing a school uniform going to a Jewish school or a young woman wearing a hijab,” he said.
The proposed laws will also ease visa denials on the ground of racial bigotry, and lower the threshold for banning hate organisations including neo-Nazi groups, officials said.
ALBANESE FACED CRITICISM FROM JEWISH GROUPS, ISRAEL
In the days after the Bondi Beach attack, Jewish community groups and the Israeli government criticised Albanese for failing to act on a rise in antisemitic attacks and criticised protest marches against Israel’s war in Gaza held since 2023.
Last week, Albanese said a Royal Commission would consider the events of the shooting as well as antisemitism and social cohesion in Australia.
A top Australian arts festival has seen the withdrawal of dozens of writers in a backlash against its decision to bar an Australian Palestinian author.