Influential Liberal senator Jonno Duniam has announced he is quitting politics, just months after backing Labor’s controversial “hate speech” and prohibited hate group laws, which he wanted to be even stricter.
Mr Duniam was last year appointed Shadow Home Affairs Minister by former Liberal leader Sussan Ley, who also left parliament herself in February after helping Prime Minister Anthony Albanese pass the controversial legislation in response the Bondi Islamic terrorist attack.
The Tasmanian senator and Ms Ley presided over a disastrous poll slump, but he was then named Shadow Minister for Immigration by new Liberal leader Angus Taylor, only to announce on Sunday he would step down later this year, saying he wanted to spend more time with his three sons.
“After much consideration, my family and I made the call that it was time for me to be home more,” he said.
“Twenty-five years, a quarter of a century, devoted to politics I think is more than enough for anyone.”
Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said he was sad to see Mr Duniam go, calling him one of Liberal Party’s “best and brightest” and crediting his Liberal counterpart for enabling him to list the White Australia Party as a hate group.
“The neo-Nazis are banned in Australia, and that’s because of legislation that was only made possible, that was shepherded through the Coalition processes by Jonno Duniam,” he said.
“And can I say, doing something on that, it wasn’t necessarily easy internally for them, because this was to go below the normal thresholds, where it was words that were not specifically calling for violence, but we are a safer nation because that’s been done, and it wouldn’t have happened were it not for his leadership.”
After the White Australia Party ban, which has resulted in a constitutional challenge to the validity of the laws in the High Court, Mr Duniam called the move a “welcome development”, and described the legislation as “responsible and effective”.
Mr Duniam also opposed the scrapping of the most controversial element of Mr Albanese’s legislation – a new racial vilification offence that would have allowed the government to jail Australians for up to five years for causing someone to “feel fear” – because it was recommended by Jewish lobby groups.
“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.”
One Nation leader Pauline Hanson, whose party overtook the Coalition for the first time in Australia during Ms Ley and Mr Duniam’s tenure and is now more popular than Labor, campaigned hard against the new laws, warning they would criminalise national pride.
Header image: Left, Jonno Duniam with former prime minister John Howard (Facebook). Right, Tony Burke making his comments on Sunday (Sky News).
