SYDNEY, Jan 15 (Reuters) – Tougher hate speech and gun control laws proposed by Australia’s centre-left Labor government in the aftermath of the Bondi Beach mass shooting were criticised by conservative opposition parties on Thursday.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has recalled Parliament from its summer break to sit next Monday and Tuesday with the hope that a combined bill that authorises a gun buyback and lowers the bar for hate speech prosecutions can be passed.
On Thursday, Liberal Party leader Sussan Ley said the bill was “unsalvageable” after prominent conservative lawmakers said it threatened free speech and religious freedom.
The December 14 shooting in Sydney that killed 15 people at a Hanukkah celebration sparked nationwide calls to tackle antisemitism. Police say the alleged gunmen were inspired by the Islamic State militant group.
Ley criticised the bill for not targeting “radical Islamic extremist hate preaching without impinging on free speech.”
The bill exempts preachers who quote from or discuss religious texts, which the Executive Council of Australian Jewry said could pose a loophole that allows antisemitism.
The National Party, which partners with the Liberals in a conservative coalition, has also criticised the government for combining gun control measures, which it opposed, and hate speech in the same bill.
“This should have been a moment of national unity,” Albanese said in an Australian Broadcasting Corporation radio interview on Thursday.
The government is prepared to consider amendments to the bill, he added.
Labor holds a majority in the lower house of Parliament and is likely to negotiate with the Greens party for support for the bill in the Senate.
Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said since the draft law was released, a neo-Nazi group that was flagged as a concern by intelligence agencies disbanded this week to avoid prosecution, which he said showed the effectiveness of the bill. In addition, a Muslim prayer hall in Sydney linked to a cleric who was found by a court to have made intimidating statements about Jewish people said it would shut down.
An expert in constitutional law, Anne Twomey, said the proposed law could be challenged in the High Court for impinging on political communication.
The proposed offence of promoting racial hatred carries a five-year prison sentence.
Daniel Aghion, president of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, said the reform would make it easier to prosecute hate crimes because incitement of an audience would no longer need to be proved in court.
In a statement, the council said the bill should be passed, even though it had “serious shortcomings.”
(Reporting by Kirsty Needham in Sydney; Editing by Thomas Derpinghaus)
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