Liberal MP Andrew Hastie has voted for Labor’s controversial “hate speech” bill, just days after calling the proposed legislation an attack on democratic freedoms and promising to oppose it.
The Western Australian MP joined his lower house Liberal colleagues in voting for the new laws on Tuesday, after Coalition leader Sussan Ley made a deal with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to pass an amended version of the bill.
He tried to justify his vote in a video where he said he voted to ban Muslim group Hizb ut-Tahrir and “neo-Nazis” and said he thought the bill was “in the national interest”.
The Nationals abstained from voting, except for former deputy PM and Nationals leader Michael McCormack who voted Yes along with the Liberals, and Colin Boyce and Llew O’Brien who crossed the floor to vote against.
Hastie before:
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Hastie after:
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Only five other MPs, independents Rebekha Sharkie, Bob Katter, Andrew Wilkie, Dai Le and Barnaby Joyce – another former Nationals leader and deputy PM – voted to oppose.
Mr Hastie’s vote came after he said last week he would vote against the original omnibus bill, which has seen been split into two, and had a new racial vilification offence removed.
In a video titled “Why I’m voting against Labor’s hate speech laws”, Mr Hastie he would be voting against it as it “is an attack on our basic democratic freedoms – freedom of conscience, freedom of speech, freedom of religion”.
“Those three freedoms are fundamental to any democratic society, they’re hard won, and they’ve served Australia well for 100 years, and this bill will reduce them,” he said.
He also said there was no enough time for consultation, including public submissions, warned of “unintended consequences”, and said parliament should wait until the finding of a Royal Commission into the Bondi Islamic terrorist attack.
In a second video a day later Mr Hastie said the bill would not have prevented the Bondi massacre, falsely claimed the “hate speech” sections had all been removed, but again said there was the bill should not be rushed.
Australians responded to Mr Hastie’s vote by accusing him of betraying his supporters.
“Our ‘based saviour of the Australian right’ just voted YES to the hate speech bill, you know, the one that strips Australians of even more of the rights – the bill he said he’d vote no to! He and the Liberal party are FINISHED,” said March for Australia promoter Hugo Lennon.
“The Liberal Party traitors that voted for Labor’s ‘Hate Speech/ Censorship Bill. This includes Andrew Hastie,” read one popular X post from commentator Lozzy B with a image of all the Liberals who supported the bill.
“So, Hastie just voted YES to a bill that he described as ‘an attack on basic democratic freedoms: freedom of conscience, freedom of speech, and freedom of religion’? Pathetic,” wrote Caldron Pool.
