Politicians are expected return to Canberra before Australia Day to pass laws responding to Australia's worst mass shooting in decades.
Parliament is expected to return at some point in the next two weeks, allowing the government to pass laws cracking down on hate preachers who vilify people of other faiths.
The legislation is being drawn up after December's mass shooting on Bondi Beach, which saw two gunmen target Jewish revellers celebrating Hanukkah, leaving 15 people dead.
Officials are still drafting hate speech laws, which were announced shortly after the massacre.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has also promised a national gun buyback scheme and stronger powers for the home affairs minister to cancel or reject the visas of foreigners who spread hate or division.
Parliament's first sitting of 2026 was scheduled for 3 February.
While the first sitting is now expected to be held as soon as 12 January, Treasurer Jim Chalmers would not confirm a date but said an early sitting was a possibility.
"We're working very hard on updating arrangements around hate speech. We're working very hard with our state and territory counterparts on strengthening our gun laws," he said.
"We will recall the parliament when we can legislate some of those very substantive steps."
Opposition leader Sussan Ley, who called for parliament to be brought back before Christmas, said she has had "brief conversations" with the prime minister, but does not have a "firm date" yet.
"Every day the parliament has not come back has been a day that it should have come back," she said.
"Whenever it comes back, it won't be coming back early. It will be coming back late."
Mounting pressure for a federal royal commission
Albanese is also staring down growing pressure to announce a Commonwealth royal commission into the terror attack, after independent MPs wrote to him demanding stronger action.
Labor has so far rejected calls from the Jewish community, business leaders, sporting stars and politicians for the wide-ranging inquiry to examine the 14 December shooting and antisemitic sentiment in the community.
Ley said she would leave "no stone unturned" in her effort to secure the investigation, accusing Albanese of "hiding behind a smokescreen of national security".
"If the prime minister has to be dragged kicking and screaming to call this royal commission, then so be it," she said.
Police are still investigating the nation's worst mass shooting in nearly 30 years, during which a father and son allegedly killed 15 people and wounded scores more at Bondi Beach.
Federal Labor frontbencher Tim Ayres warned a royal commission could risk delaying the government's response to the massacre.
He argued that other inquiries were already underway, including a review of Australia's intelligence agencies by former Australian Security Intelligence Organisation chief Dennis Richardson and a NSW royal commission into the tragedy.
"This is the time to act with urgency, to be focused on unity here in Australia," Ayres told the ABC on Monday.
"This is not the time to be doing things that are politically expedient or politically easy."
Chalmers also argued a federal investigation would be slow and cumbersome.
"The government's position is that we are focused on the urgent and the immediate," he said.
Independent federal MPs Monique Ryan, Kate Chaney, Sophie Scamps and Zali Steggall are the latest to write to Albanese demanding a federal royal commission.
"Only a federal royal commission will have the power to comprehensively and independently investigate the circumstances leading to, and authorities' response to, the attacks, and examine actions and coordination across all levels of government," they said in a joint letter.
The four MPs also called for changes to hate speech laws and to crack down on anyone attempting to incite hatred, along with more funding to protect the Jewish community.
"Australia has been the most successful multicultural country in the world," they said.
"It can be again — but we must ensure that all our communities can practice their culture, traditions and beliefs in safety, and free from persecution."
Other independents — including Sydney MPs Allegra Spender and Nicolette Boele, ACT senator David Pocock, Tasmanian MP Andrew Wilkie and South Australian MP Rebekha Sharkie — have previously expressed support for a national royal commission.
The latest letter also follows similar calls from sporting legends and business leaders, including James Packer.
On Sunday, Olympians Dawn Fraser, Ian Thorpe, Grant Hackett and Nova Peris joined around 60 athletes to demand a federal royal commission.
The NSW government has already promised a state-based royal commission, but critics argue the investigation won't adequately probe any potential federal failures in the lead-up to the Bondi attack.
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