The Australian government’s controversial “hate speech” laws have passed parliament with almost no public consultation after 10 Liberal senators voted with Labor.
The Combatting Antisemitism, Hate and Extremism (Criminal and Migration Laws) Bill passed the Senate 38 votes to 22, just after 11pm, with just one Liberal senator, Alex Antic, voting against legislation that Coalition leader Sussan Ley called “unsalvageable” just days earlier.
“History will not treat this Bill well. This is a victory for the security state, the establishment and the censorship industrial complex,” Mr Antic wrote after the vote.
Coalition junior partners The Nationals voted against the bill along with One Nation, the Greens, Independents and United Australia Party senator Ralph Babet, but the Liberals supported the bill after Ms Ley made a deal with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Monday.
🚨#BREAKING: Australia’s controversial “hate speech” laws have passed the Senate, 38 votes to 22, after 10 Liberals voted with Labor.
Follow: @NoticerNews pic.twitter.com/xELxXLO25r
— The Noticer (@NoticerNews) January 20, 2026
One Nation leader Pauline Hanson, who could not vote due to her suspension from the senate for wearing a burqa into the chamber, described the agreement as a “dirty, grubby political deal” earlier on Tuesday, and revealed non-major party senators and MPs only received the revised bill on Tuesday morning.
The bill includes “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, and have been criticised by legal experts who warned they are open to abuse and constitutional challenge.
They also provide the Home Affairs Minister with more powers to cancel or refuse visas due to “hate” or “extremism”, and create new aggravated offences for religious and spiritual leaders.
The Nationals wanted more safeguards around the Prohibited Hate Groups element of the laws, and leader David Littleproud said the party room decided the bill could not be supported in its current form.
“Our priority is keeping Australians safe against Islamic extremism. We support legislative measures that protect against this threat. The Nationals support the intent of the legislation, but we must get it right,” he said.
“The legislation needs amendments to guarantee greater protections against unintended consequences that limit the rights and freedom of speech of everyday Australians and the Jewish community.”
Nationals senator Matt Canavan warned the new laws damaged freedom of speech, divided Australians by race, and could criminalise a wide range of political discourse.
“I’m not dividing our country by race or colour. This law is effectively a back door to the voice, by introducing concepts of race, colour, of nation status and giving different rights to different groups of people in this country for the first time in our criminal law,” Mr Canavan said.
“The first line of the law states that it’s about protecting the Australian community from economic, social, and psychological harm. I don’t think that’s something that’s been well canvassed to the rest of the country … aren’t we here today to try and stop terrorism … to stop people who are killing and hurting Australians in a physical fashion.
“What if someone is to get behind a boycott of russian goods, because they invaded Ukraine? That certainly is attacking a group of people based on their national origin; it would certainly cause economic harm and could be defined as a hate crime under these laws.”
Today the Liberal Party vetoed Labor’s attempt to criminalise free speech and brought in greater powers to deport Islamist extremists.
We succeeded in narrowing the scope of Labor’s broken bill to deal with what it should’ve done from the start – tackling antisemitism and radical… pic.twitter.com/O5GUSqEtb7— Sussan Ley (@sussanley) January 20, 2026
Daniel Wild, Deputy Executive Director of conservative think tank the Institute of Public Affairs, said the laws were still “profoundly illiberal” despite the Coalition amendments, and had no place in a democracy.
“The revised hate laws, which include provisions around banning so-called ‘hate groups’, are so broad and subjective that widespread censorship and banning of groups based on their political views is almost an inevitability,” he said.
“These laws are so broad they could capture political parties such as One Nation, and civil society groups such as the Institute of Public Affairs, Advance Australia, and even The Australia Institute.
“There is no doubt these laws will be used for political purposes by this government to shut down its political opponents, censor mainstream Australians, and curtail the contours of political debate.
“This entire period in Canberra has been a shameful reflection of the ineptitude and failures of Australia’s political class to honestly address the issue of radical Islam, and the decades-long failure of our migration system.”
After voting with Labor to pass the laws through the lower house earlier on Tuesday, Ms Ley claimed the Liberals had “fixed” the bill with their amendments, but was accused of “gaslighting” by angry Australians.
“Don’t gaslight us, we aren’t the retarded ones, you are,” read one popular comment on one of her X posts.
“You’re a liar and a traitor. You voted to destroy Australian freedoms. Australians deserve far better than you,” said another.
“Today the Liberal Party committed political suicide,” said a third.
Liberal MP Andrew Hastie received similar backlash after voting for the bill in the House of Representatives, just days after promising to oppose it, and came in for more criticism after claiming in a video that he “believed in freedom” but that the new laws were “in the national interest”.
Header image: Left, right, Anthony Albanese and Sussan Ley in Parliament on Tuesday (Australian Parliament House).
