TRANSCRIPT:
The Albanese government has made some last-minute changes to their legislative response to the Bondi Beach shootings ahead of a chaotic week of negotiations to salvage the laws.
Federal MPs and Senators are returning to Canberra early to debate the government's proposed new hate speech and gun reform laws.
The 144-page draft of the Combatting Antisemitism, Hate and Extremism Bill had proposes to create new offences, increase penalties for existing hate crimes, and introduce additional security checks for people obtaining firearms.
The Albanese government was hoping for what they called a "moment of national unity" in their attempt to pass the legislation in just a few days, but Opposition leader Sussan Ley had made it clear it wouldn't be so simple.
"Now the Opposition will continue to scrutinise this legislation. But from what we have seen so far, it seems pretty unsalvageable."
The Albanese government requires either the support of the Coalition or the Greens to pass the laws, neither of which had been looking likely.
The main criticisms centred around the broad nature of the bill, which had included both gun reforms and new hate speech measures.
In response to discussions with the Greens, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has now decided to split up the bill and water down some controversial components to ensure the passage of both set of laws.
"We wanted to legislate on both. In order to ensure passage of these gun laws we will be separating out schedule three and four of the bill. Gun laws will be separate and then the laws on hate crimes and migration will proceed but we will not be proceeding with the racial vilification provisions because it's clear that that will not have support."
This decision appears to be an attempt at securing support for gun reforms from the Greens while seeking support for hate speech changes from the Coalition when the bills are introduced on Tuesday.
Deputy Greens leader, Senator Mehreen Faruqi, says her party could not support the hate speech reforms after hearing concerns from community members.
"We will not be party to a legislation which divides communities and people along religion, which can be used to shut down political discourse. The Greens are more than willing to work with the government to pass gun law reforms which the community has been asking for for a very long time but we will not be pushing through any other parts of the legislation."
Peter Wertheim, Co-Chief Executive of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, says the reforms may not be perfect but he argues that Parliament must not miss the moment for positive change.
"This bill, despite its imperfections, is another step towards the goal of having effective laws to proscribe intentional hate speech. And even if it's less than ideal, even if doesn't quite get us to the destination in a perfect way, it's certainly a step in the right direction."
A new joint letter to the prime minister from some of Australia's most influential religious leaders, has advised the government to pause the hate speech reforms to avoid unintended consequences on religious freedoms.
26 leaders from various Christian, Muslim, Sikh and Buddhist organisations have argued the bill could threaten reasonable religious discourse.
The Prime Minister has claimed his government consulted various faith communities when drafting the laws.
But Anglican Bishop of South Sydney, Reverend Michael Stead, says it's been a rushed process where the views of faith leaders have been considered only as an afterthought.
"I got the briefing from the Attorney General's Department at 3:30 that afternoon, the day it had been released, had to appear before a parliamentary inquiry 24 hours later, had to write a submission on the bill 24 hours after that. That's just a ridiculously short period of time. The bill itself is 140-something pages. The explanatory memorandum is 320. To expect people to have got their heads around almost 500 pages of material in the space of a couple of days is just - insufficient is an understatement."
Senate leader Penny Wong says the government has heard the criticisms from community groups and political parties.
She says she wants to see a constructive effort from her Parliamentary colleagues that will allow the passage of both bills to better protect people from hate and gun violence.
"The prime minister has made clear we are open to amendments. We would like to see national unity, we would like to see the Coalition and the Greens act responsibly. It's important legislation to protect Australians. We want to get it right and we're open to the discussion."
