After the Bondi Beach terror attack last month, pressure has been mounting for a political response to the tragedy from the Federal Government.
Now, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has called for parliament to return to work early and pass an extensive bill changing offences around hate crimes and tightening gun laws.
"The laws will set a principles-based test for conduct and speech that incites racial hatred towards another person or group. The terrorists at Bondi Beach had hatred in their minds but guns in their hands and this bill will address both those issues."
The 144-page draft of the Combatting Antisemitism, Hate and Extremism Bill has been released on Tuesday.
It proposes to create new offences, increase penalties for existing hate crimes, and introduce additional security checks for people obtaining firearms.
The government will need Opposition or crossbench support to pass the legislation, calling it a moment for "national unity" and asking politicians to look for reasons to agree rather than disagree.
Some, however, have already expressed reservations.
Nationals leader David Littleproud tells Sky News that gun laws and hate speech are complex issues and they should not be rolled into one bill.
"The legislation around hate speech is complex, as is gun laws, and the reality is to try and put them into one bill disrespects the Parliament and it actually flies in the face of his words about bringing the Parliament together in a cooperative way. The reality is if you were really serious about bringing the country together and bringing the Parliament together you would have these two serious and complex policy areas separated."
There are also concerns within the Opposition about provisions of the hate speech bill.
Under the proposed legislation, it would be illegal 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.
Someone encouraging hatred towards a community member, making them feel intimidated or fear violence, could be imprisoned for five years.
A religious official or spiritual leader found advocating or threatening violence against groups, in their preaching or religious instruction capacity, will face up to 12 years imprisonment.
But the draft law also does creates an exemption for directly quoting from or referencing a religious text for the purpose of religious teaching or discussion.
Shadow Home Affairs Minister Jonathon Duniam says he's concerned this may fail to tackle some radical Islamic preachers who would be able to fall back on that defence.
"Well, stakeholders have indicated of course there are concerns around the depth and breadth of the defence for people reading from religious scripture. There are definitional issues around certain elements of the legislation."
Peter Wertheim, co-Chief Executive of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry says he appreciates some aspects of the legislation but believes the exemption is misguided.
"Seeking to excuse that sort of behavior where it's intentional, deliberate, knowing by hiding behind religion is inexcusable and that exemption should not be in the legislation in our view it is entirely misconceived."
But Mr Albanese says the government must be careful not to infringe on religious freedoms and have consulted with religious leaders when drafting the laws.
"I encourage you to read the Old Testament and see what's there and see if you outlaw that what would occur. So we need to be careful. We consulted with faith groups, not just with the Jewish community. We want to make sure there's the broadest possible support but we also want to make sure that there isn't unintended consequences of the legislation as well."
Harsher penalties will also apply for pre-existing crimes of seeking to spread hate, division and radicalisation.
Anyone threatening force or violence against persons or a group, as well as their property or a person close to them, will face jail time increased from five to seven years.
Aggravated hate crime offences will carry a 10-year penalty instead of a seven-year penalty and threatening or harassing someone through the mail will incur five years.
The Prime Minister has also announced a day of national mourning for the 15 people killed in the Bondi attack on January 22nd.
"This will have a theme of light will win, a gathering of unity and remembrance. Flags will be flown at half-mast in all Commonwealth buildings around Australia and further details will be announced at the end of this week."
