After weeks criticising the Albanese government over the Bondi attack and issues around antisemitism, the Coalition is split over whether proposed solutions are at odds with its interests in preserving freedom of speech.<\/p>\n
While Ms Ley criticised the proposed laws for not clearly capturing certain phrases, many of her colleagues argued the changes go too far in limiting free speech.<\/p>\n
Pressed during a snap hearing into the bill on Monday on whether phrases such as “globalise the intifada” and “from the river to the sea” would meet the threshold of the new offence, department officials said the laws were not designed to prohibit a list of specific statements.<\/p>\n
Liberal members have also said the bill is unlikely to get approval from the Coalition partyroom in its current form due to fears the new racial hatred offence goes too far in infringing on religious freedoms.<\/p>\n
The Nationals are opposed to the gun reform elements of the proposal.<\/p>\n
The legislation includes measures to introduce a gun buyback scheme, strengthen background checks for gun owners, grant greater powers to cancel or reject visas and create a regime to ban designated hate groups.<\/p>\n
Religious teaching may be defence under new hate laws <\/a><\/p>\n Directly quoting from a religious text for the purpose of teaching or discussion may provide a defence under the federal government’s hate speech laws proposed in the wake of the Bondi terror attack.<\/p>\n Labor does not necessarily need the Coalition’s support and could instead cut a deal with the Greens to pass the bill.<\/p>\n The Greens have not settled on a formal position on the bill, but are supportive of proposals to broaden the promoting hatred component to also cover minority groups.<\/p>\n On Thursday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told ABC Radio Sydney it was “stunning” to see the Coalition back away from supporting the omnibus bill.\u00a0<\/p>\n Mr Albanese said the Coalition had repeatedly called for parliament to be recalled to pass stronger laws to prevent a similar attack from happening again.\u00a0<\/p>\n “They’re still playing politics, and I’m just stunned that they are saying they will vote against legislation, a number of their members, without even looking at it,” Mr Albanese said.\u00a0<\/p>\n He rejected the claims that the process had been rushed, and criticised calls from one Coalition MP to wait until the royal commission into antisemitism was complete before proposing changes.<\/p>\n Multicultural Affairs Minister Anne Aly has said the federal government may look at tackling other types of hate speech in the future, which has been a concern of human rights advocates, Muslim leaders and some Jewish groups.<\/p>\n Concerns spread through Liberals ranks<\/p>\n Liberal sources said reservations about the inciting hatred offence had spread from the backbench through to senior shadow ministers<\/a> since Labor first presented the draft bill on Monday evening.<\/p>\n Liberal frontbencher Tim Wilson on Wednesday night laid out a number of concerns with the threshold, scope and intent of the hate speech proposal.<\/p>\n “We need courage and leadership to get the law right because freedom is rarely recovered once lost,” he said.<\/p>\n Earlier, Liberal backbencher Andrew Hastie announced he would not be supporting the legislation next week.<\/p>\n Fellow right faction MPs Garth Hamilton and Ben Small have also publicly expressed concerns about impeding free speech.<\/p>\n “This bill is an attack on our basic democratic freedoms,” Mr Hastie said.<\/p>\n Australian Jewish groups have largely backed the government’s proposed racial hatred laws on principle, though some have raised concerns about an exemption for people quoting directly from religious texts for teaching or discussion<\/a>.<\/p>\n Michael McCormack says it is likely the Nationals will vote against the bill. (ABC News: Matt Roberts)<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Nationals MP Michael McCormack told ABC’s 7.30 that while his party had not yet met, it appeared the Nationals would vote against the bill.<\/p>\n “This is being rushed through as an omnibus bill, and we’re expected to vote and make the changes in just two days. That is not enough time,” he said.<\/p>\n “What we’re seeing here, in hundreds of pages of legislation, is wide-ranging changes to what many people would say is the free speech that we have enjoyed and had for many, many years.<\/p>\n![\"Michael](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/a8ed3b7a07e3d797b2f4b98fb5fd40f9.jpeg\")
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