Australia’s Prime Minister has abandoned one element of his “hate speech” and gun reform bill, but will still try to push through the majority of the controversial legislation.
Anthony Albanese announced on Saturday he would remove the new racial vilification offence, and separate the proposed changes to gun laws from the rest of the Combatting Antisemitism, Hate and Extremism Bill 2026 in an attempt to get it past the Senate.
But the “hate speech” components still include Prohibited Hate Groups laws that are retroactive and allow the government to ban organisations based on a loose definition of “hate crimes” with no criminal convictions or procedural fairness required, along with provisions adding new aggravated “hate speech” offences, and new powers to cancel or refuse visas for “hate”.
“We’ll separate out the bills, the gun laws will be separate, and then the laws on hate crimes and migration will proceed. But we will not be proceeding with the racial vilification provisions, because it’s clear that that will not have support,” Mr Albanese said.
The backdown came after far-left party the Greens said on Saturday morning they could not support the bill, which Mr Albanese previously described as “un-splittable”, in its current form, and said the new racial vilification offence needed to be broadened to cover more categories than just race and religion.
Before Mr Albanese’s statement, Greens senator David Shoebridge said the Greens would not support any of the “hate speech” provisions, a position he said was based on the concerns of legal experts, religious groups and the community.
“Every stakeholder meeting we’ve had raises fresh concerns about civil liberties, the right to free speech and the potential overreach of the government’s legislation,” he said.
“When the government brings legislation into the parliament that protects only one religion, that is designed to put critics in jail, and that has not been consulted with the broader community, there is only one word to describe that, and that is divisive.
“The legislation that deals with hate, migration, vilification, the listing of groups, the proscription of groups, that is not supportable, we will not be supporting it and we’re not looking to amend it because it’s not supportable.”
Earlier this week the Greens said “allowing the government to proscribe organisations is a serious step, and it needs to come with safeguards and protections, including procedural fairness” and said there was no “credible legal test” for the proposed new visa cancellation laws.
A government source told The Sydney Morning Herald Labor was now in new negotiations with the Coalition and the Greens on the remaining “hate speech” components of the bill.
The gun laws reforms will pass with the help of the Greens, despite opposition from the Nationals.
While announcing the splitting of the bill, Mr Albanese lashed out at Opposition leader Sussan Ley for her opposition to the racial vilification provision, saying it had been crafted in consultation with the Jewish community, and in response to the recommendations from the Special Envoy on Combating Anti-Semitism.
“The Coalition need to come up with what their position is, because at the moment, they’re defined by what they’re against, but it’s not clear what they’re for,” he said.
“They have, up to this point, of course, called for Parliament to be recalled and then opposed it when we did it. They called for hate speech laws. When they’ve seen them, they’re now against them.”
Parliament will still be recalled early on Monday, but the updated and split bills will be tabled on Tuesday instead, where Labor will pass the legislation through the lower house but need support from either the Greens or the Coalition to get it through the Senate.
Header image: Left, Anthony Albanese announced the bill split on Saturday. Right, Opposition leader Sussan Ley makes a speech on Saturday (Facebook).
