A prominent Liberal senator has said the government should restore the one element of the “hate speech” bill it scrapped while splitting the legislation on the weekend.
Coalition Home Affairs spokesman Jonathon Duniam said the controversial new racial vilification offence, which could see Australians jailed for up to five years for causing someone to “feel fear”, should be brought back and put through a “proper process” as it was “unworkable” as presented.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Saturday removed the proposed law in the hopes of being able to pass the gun reform elements and remaining “hate speech” components with the help of the Opposition, after far-left party the Greens said it would not support any of the speech laws, including those on “hate groups”.
Labor will this week negotiate with Coalition leader Sussan Ley, who The Age reported will work with the government to pass a water-down version of the laws due to her concerns she had to be seen to be acting on anti-Semitism.
Mr Duniam told Sky News on Monday the Coalition was open to the concept of the racial vilification offence, which civil libertarians warned were worse than current UK laws that result in 30 arrests a day for social media posts, as it had been recommended by Special Envoy on Combatting Anti-Semitism Jillian Segal.
“The government brought it in, they should consider bringing it back and indeed, go through a proper process. These are something that can’t be dealt with in a week and amended on the fly within a seven-day period,” he said.
“They are the biggest shift in laws that govern speech in this country in more than half a century. And we can’t just whip through some bills and hope for the best. The government chose to pursue this. Let’s bring it back onto the agenda, let’s get it right, let’s not rush it.
“Hopefully in a united way we can leave parliament this week and do the right thing by the Jewish community.”
Mr Albanese also said on Monday that dropping the racial vilification offence “makes it more difficult” to apply the proposed “hate groups” laws, which have been described by legal experts as unconstitutional and open to abuse.
Zionist Federation of Australia president Jeremy Leibler agreed, and said if the removal of the hatred offence meant Muslim group Hizb ut-Tahrir couldn’t be banned, then the bill had a “serious problem and the parliament needs to work together to fix it”.
The Coalition negotiations with Labor and consideration of bringing back the anti-vilification clause comes despite a huge backlash from everyday Australians, who are demanding the Liberals insist the whole bill is scrapped.
One Nation leader Pauline Hanson, whose party just overtook the Coalition for the first time in Australia’s most respected political poll, campaigned hard against the new laws, warning they would criminalise national pride.
Ms Hanson said outside parliament on Monday that the poll result was because she had stood firmly against mass immigration, net zero, and Covid tyranny.
“It is not racism to call out or criticise policy, which both major political parties have tried to advocate,” she said.
Header image: Mr Duniam and Ms Ley (Facebook). Right, Mr Duniam on Sky News.
