TRANSCRIPT
On Tuesday night, after weeks of debate and negotiation, the Senate voted in favour of two separate but crucial bills on gun reforms and hate speech.
"The ayes 116, the noes 7. The matter was resolved in the affirmative. This bill as amended has been agreed to."
The gun law's approval means that tighter restrictions are now enshrined into law, including a cap on firearms during a two year buyback period, and non-Australian citizens not being able to import firearms into the country.
The law also tightens background checks for gun licences, and promote intelligence sharing between agencies and states and territories when completing checks.
Greens leader Larissa Waters says it was time for Australia to have a tougher framework.
“There are now more guns in our community than they were in the aftermath of Port Arthur Masscare. Almost double number recorded in 2001. And at least 2000 new firearms are lawfully entering the community every week. The Bondi tragedy was made possible by gun laws that are no longer fit for purpose. The Greens welcomes today long overdue gun law reforms.”
But it's the hate speech law that has garnered the lion's share of attention.
That bill aims to restrict the scope of radical groups to incite violence against people based on their faith.
They also make it easier for the government to deport extremists or deny them entry to Australia.
Accordingly, the Prime Minister says the bill's passage marks progress, even if it falls short of the government’s original ambitions.
“At Bondi the terrorists had hate in their hearts, but they had guns in their hands. We said we wanted to deal with that with urgency and with unity, and we acted to deliver both.”
Senator Dave Sharma has told Channel 9 he hopes the passage of the law will bring comfort to the Jewish community.
“I don't think they're feeling any safer yet, Karl. But I think they are hopefully waking up reassured, knowing that the Australian parliament and the Australian people understand the threat they've been facing over these past 27 months... And the steps we took last night are just the first in a series of steps we need to take to address hostility towards one community in Australia: the Jewish community.”
For Peter Wertheim from the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, the package's approval is a bittersweet moment.
“At the moment the laws are framed in a particular way that sounds reasonable... but when you actually get down to the nitty gritty and the courts have to look at a particular instance of that happening, there are problems with the interpretation of the word 'incitement'. It doesn't mean legally, what it means in common parlance. It has a very restricted meaning and requires a prosecutor to prove a particular affect on a notional audience, which is very difficult to do beyond reasonable doubt. And then a lot of comments that we hear that promote racial hatred do not rise to the level of inciting violence. It's just dehumanisation and denigrating rhetoric which falls just short of the violence but creates the social licence - through that dehumanisation - for that violence to occur.”
After multiple calls with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Opposition leader Sussan Ley struck a deal with Labor, claiming to "fix" the hate law legislation with technical amendments, including tightening the definition of a hate preacher and setting up stricter parliamentary oversight.
But the Nationals voted no to both the gun reforms and hate speech bills - a decision that Senator Bridget McKenzie is standing by.
“I think the Prime Minister has been playing politics on this piece of legislation from the start. If he really wanted a bipartisan approach, he would have heeded our calls in the wake of the attack, sat down with the parties of government and actually developed an appropriate response.”
Shadow cabinet solidarity requires all Coalition frontbenchers to vote in line with any formally resolved positions - and the Nationals are now meeting to decide how to handle the three Senators who rejected the deal Ms Ley made.
But Nationals leader David Littleproud has issued a statement saying the split vote does not reflect on the relationship within the Coalition, and that his party supported the intent of the laws on hate speech and extremism.
Senator McKenzie says she has no regrets.
“I'm very aware of the conventions of parliament, and I will be doing what I've always done, which] is trying to do my very best to conduct my career here with integrity.”
As for the government's next steps, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke has said that further measures to combat hate speech are unlikely to be pursued, even if a royal commission into antisemitism calls for stronger laws.
Jewish MP Josh Burns has pointed to the Coalition as the reason why.
“The original design of the bills included vilification clauses. This was recommended by the Special Envoy combating anti semitism. It was something that Sussan Ley, in a speech to a synagogue last Thursday in St Kilda, in my electorate, said that she supported, or she supported in a shul, in a synagogue, but she couldn't support it in the parliament. And the Jewish community, and leaders of the Jewish community have come out this morning and said, This is unfinished business, but we can't pass it alone. And I would hope that the Liberal party come to their senses.”
