Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has urged the Coalition to support the government's hate speech laws or risk them being abandoned forever.
On Monday, parliament returned two weeks ahead of schedule to pass a suite of reforms in response to the Bondi terror attack.
The government was forced to split its sweeping omnibus bill — encompassing gun laws, hate crimes, migration changes — and abandoned racial vilification provisions on Saturday, after it became clear neither the Coalition nor the Greens supported the changes.
Late last week, Opposition leader Sussan Ley said the reforms had been rushed, "half-baked" and "unsalvageable" in their current form.
Firing back, Albanese has demanded the Coalition explain why it will not support laws recommended by antisemitism envoy Jillian Segal in her plan to combat antisemitism, released last July.
"It's up to the Coalition in particular to explain why it is that they said they wanted the report implemented in full," he told ABC radio Melbourne.
"And when they’ve had the opportunity, [they’ve] walked away from it, just like it’s up to them to explain why it is they call for parliament to be resumed and pass all these laws before December."
Asked whether it was "tomorrow or nothing" for the hate speech laws, Albanese answered, "correct".
Albanese said he wouldn't introduce laws that clearly don't have the majority support in the Senate only to see them defeated.
The suite of laws is a response to the Bondi terror attack last month, when two gunmen — who police allege were father and son Sajid and Naveed Akram — opened fire near a Hanukkah event, killing 15 people.
Albanese has asked Opposition leader Sussan Ley to explain why she won't back the suite of reforms, particularly hate speech laws recommended by the antisemitism envoy. Source: AAP / Mick Tsikas
Measures still to be debated when the bill is introduced include strengthening penalties against people who threaten violence against protected groups, proscribing hate groups, and giving the home affairs minister more powers to cancel or refuse visas.
The legislation will be introduced into the Senate on Tuesday.
PM refuses to expand vilification provisions
The bill originally proposed making it a crime to "publicly promote or incite hatred" or "disseminate ideas of superiority or hatred towards another person or group of people based on their race, colour, or national or ethnic origin".
Albanese dropped the racial vilification offence from the bill due to a lack of support, despite a push for the provisions to be extended to address all forms of hatred, based on race, religion, disability, sexuality, or gender.
The expansion was pursued by the Greens and had the support of Jewish groups as well as frontbenchers Anne Aly, Mark Butler and Josh Burns. It also had the support of Wentworth MP Allegra Spender, who has advocated for the changes for more than a year.
However, the prime minister has made it clear he will not seek to expand the hate speech protections beyond Jewish Australians.
"No, we accept that there's not a majority for the reforms that we were pursuing."
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