PM outlines new laws to crack down on hate speech and preachers of hate
The prime minister has outlineed the additional measures that will be taken, including new powers to reject visas for the minister for home affairs and a special 12-month taskforce.
Firstly, the attorney-general and minister for home affairs will develop legislative reforms to crack down on those who spread hate, division and radicalisation.
The national security committee has agreed the changes will include five points: aggravated hate speech offence for preachers and leaders who promote violence, increased penalties for hate speech promoting violence, making hate an aggravating factor in sentencing crimes for online threats and harassment, developing a regime for listing organisations whose leaders engage in hate speech promoting violence or racial hatred and developing a narrow federal offence for serious vilification based on race and/or advocating racial supremacy.
Albanese says the minister for home affairs will also have new powers to cancel or reject visas “for those who spread hate and division in this country, or would do so if they were allowed to come here”.
Updated at 19.45 EST
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Pressed on accusations that Labor has delayed acting on antisemitism, Albanese has defended his government’s crackdown on hate speech.
We are the first government to legislate on hate speech. We did that. We’ve outlawed Nazi symbols. What we know is that there’s more that we can do.
So, for example, the discussion, which we’re announcing today, develop a regime for listing organisations whose leaders engage in hate speech promoting violence or racial hatred.
Updated at 19.58 EST
Finally, the education minister, Jason Clare, addresses the media.
He says there is “work we can do” on Australia’s curriculum to improve understanding of antisemitism.
The curriculum already has in it Holocaust education, but there is more we can do here to make sure we embed in it an understanding of the evils of antisemitism, of the horrors of the Holocaust, and the importance of Australian values. In addition to that, there’s more work we can do in universities as well. The fact is, Jewish students have been made to feel unwelcome on campus.
Clare says “children aren’t born antisemitic” or with “hate in their hearts”.
This is something that’s taught … education is an important part of that – in preventing it, in tackling it, in responding to it. That includes work that we do from right across the system, from early education right through our schools to universities.
He says the antisemitism education taskforce will include states and territories as well as key regulators across education.
Updated at 19.56 EST
Home affairs minister says ‘no time for organisations’ who hate Australia
Tony Burke says today’s announcements take Australia into “new legal territory, creating new offences that have never before existed in Australia”.
He says “for too long … people have gone right to the limits of the law but have managed to stay on the legal side of it”.
There have been organisations which any Australian would look at and say their behaviour, their philosophy, and what they are trying to do is about division, and has no place in Australia. And yet, for a generation, no government has been able to successfully take action against them because they have fallen just below the legal threshold.
Today, we’re announcing that we’re shifting the threshold. We have no time for organisations where their mission is to hate Australia and to hate fellow Australians. Secondly, there have been individuals who have managed to exploit a nation that had different principles of freedom of speech and have gone right to the limits of language that is clearly dehumanising, unacceptable, having no place in Australia, but have not quite crossed the threshold to violence … we’re announcing that we’re working on the legislation now to lower those thresholds.
He concludes by saying Australia is a “good country” where people have a right to “be safe and to feel safe”.
Those who hate Australia will have no legal consequences that will change the sense of what it is to be safe in this country.
Updated at 19.59 EST
NSW joint counter-terrorism team will execute further search warrents, says AFP commissioner
The AFP commissioner, Krissy Barrett, confirms the surviving alleged shooter has been charged with 59 offences after allegedly committing the terrorist attack.
She says in the coming days, the New South Wales joint counter-terrorism team will execute further search warrants to support the investigation.
There is a lot of material to be examined, and the AFP continues to work with both domestic and international partners to build a more complete picture of the movements and who the alleged offenders had contact with, both in Australia and offshore.
I can also reveal the AFP has ongoing investigations into people who have been described as hate preachers. These individuals who spew hatred and cause fear are on my radar, and I have had the counter-terrorism and special investigations Command reviewing information and other material in relation to these individuals since I became the commissioner.
She says the “weight of grief” hangs heavy in Sydney, paying particular tribute to 10-year-old Matilda.
She was so young. She was so innocent. My heart is so heavy for her family. I offer my sincere and heartfelt condolences to the families who are mourning and who continue to bury loved ones … I say to Jewish Australians, you do not share this grief alone. I will share the weight of this unfortunate grief with you – not just as a police officer who is dedicated to protecting and serving our country, but also as a wife, as a mother, a sister, and a daughter.
Updated at 19.52 EST
Australia’s antisemitism envoy ‘overwhelmed by support’
Jillian Segal is up next, and acknowledges the group gathered to consider her report on antisemitism and its recommendation, which was yet to be responded to in full.
She says she has been “overwhelmed by support” from the community, both in Australia and overseas, and from envoys globally.
We stand, I think, at a very important moment – not only for our community, but for fighting antisemitism around the world. This more formal response has been a long time coming but, of course, it does build on a range of activities and work that started as soon as the report was delivered.
It is an important next step … I’m encouraged by some of the medium-term actions that will take place over this next year relating to education … and there will be ongoing work across all the sectors in the report longer-term … For example, the work that will take place in relation to online hate. That is an issue all over the world, and we will need to consult more broadly. We have done a lot of work already in that space, but there is a lot to do to bring it to some conclusion.
But I’m looking forward and I expect the full cooperation of the government, as the prime minister has announced, with its ongoing implementation … I’m very grateful for the support that we will have ongoing to implement it.
Updated at 19.50 EST
Albanese: every Jewish Australian to “be proud of who they are and what they believe”.
Every Jewish Australian has the right to feel safe, valued and respected for the contribution that they make to our great nation.
The terrorists, inspired by Islamic State at Bondi beach, sought to turn Australians against each other. Australians have responded to that act of hatred with love and sympathy for those in mourning. Australians responded to that act of cowardice and violence with bravery and with kindness.
And we saw a coming together last night at St Marys Cathedral of interfaith communities that was really uplifting. It is now up to all of us to honour the courage of those Australians, the heroes of Bondi, in the most meaningful way possible – by eliminating the evil of antisemitism from our society.
Updated at 19.46 EST
Albanese continues to outline the measures.
He says David Gonski will lead the 12-month taskforce, which will include the special envoy for antisemitism, to ensure the Australian education system “prevents, tackles and properly responds to antisemitism”.
The eSafety Commissioner, the special envoy, and the Department of Communications will work together to provide online safety advice to address antisemitism
I can also announce today the disaster recovery funding arrangements will be triggered in response to the attack. So the Commonwealth and New South Wales will share the financial burden of the recovery. This is the first time that the DRFA has been used for a terrorist attack.
This will provide support to victims, their families and small business impacted in the wake of the Bondi Beach terror attack.
Over the coming days, I’ll have more to say about the government’s response to Sunday’s atrocity, including on gun control. And I note that New South Wales is moving on that next week.
Updated at 19.44 EST
PM outlines new laws to crack down on hate speech and preachers of hate
The prime minister has outlineed the additional measures that will be taken, including new powers to reject visas for the minister for home affairs and a special 12-month taskforce.
Firstly, the attorney-general and minister for home affairs will develop legislative reforms to crack down on those who spread hate, division and radicalisation.
The national security committee has agreed the changes will include five points: aggravated hate speech offence for preachers and leaders who promote violence, increased penalties for hate speech promoting violence, making hate an aggravating factor in sentencing crimes for online threats and harassment, developing a regime for listing organisations whose leaders engage in hate speech promoting violence or racial hatred and developing a narrow federal offence for serious vilification based on race and/or advocating racial supremacy.
Albanese says the minister for home affairs will also have new powers to cancel or reject visas “for those who spread hate and division in this country, or would do so if they were allowed to come here”.
Updated at 19.45 EST
PM announces ‘a significant number’ of additional actions for plan to combat antisemitism
Albanese says he is “angry” after Sunday’s events, describing it as an attack on the Jewish community and Australian way of life.
He says Australia will take a “significant number” of additional actions to directly address antisemitism.
It is clear we need to do more to combat this evil scourge, much more. As special envoy to combat antisemitism, Jillian Segal, has delivered a report that sets out further steps we can take. The Australian government adopts and fully supports the plan to combat antisemitism. We have already legislated for hate speech, hate crimes, hate symbols, outlawing doxing. We’ve already undertaken education action, including appointing the first-ever Student Ombudsman and the development of the envoy’s report card on universities.
We’ll continue to work through the implementation of the 13 recommendations in consultation with the Jewish community and the envoy. Of course, the first recommendation was the adoption of the definition of “antisemitism” that the government adopted. Today, I’m announcing a significant number of additional actions for the plan.
Updated at 19.40 EST
PM speaks after meeting with national security committee meeting
The prime minister is addressing the media in Canberra after meeting with the national security committee, alongside ministers and Jillian Segal, the antisemitism envoy.
Anthony Albanese says there is “no place in Australia for antisemitism”.
It is an evil that tears at the fabric of our country. It puts the peaceful, free and equal society that we cherish at risk. Sadly, since the terrible events of October 2023, we have witnessed an increase in antisemitism, which is of course an ancient hatred.
We have seen a series of appalling attacks targeting Australia’s Jewish community. That culminated, on Sunday, in one of the worst acts of mass murder that this country has ever seen.
Updated at 19.37 EST
The flags are back up at Bondi beach for the first time since Sunday
Nick Visser
Lifeguards put up a pair of red and yellow flags just in front of the Bondi lifeguard station, and a small group of people have taken to the sand and the waves today.
The flags are back up at Bondi beach for the first time since Sunday. Photograph: Nick Visser/The GuardianThe flags are back up at Bondi beach for the first time since Sunday. Photograph: Nick Visser/The GuardianShare
Updated at 19.28 EST