- The Guardian
- Issue #2176
When it came time for the Australian home affairs minister to address the press in relation to the omnibus combating antisemitism bill, Tony Burke pointed to a number of key aspects of the legislation. These involve the listing of hate groups, and the ability to refuse to grant or cancel visas in respect of individuals found to be harbouring “racial bigotry”.
The broad range of measures contained in the Combatting Antisemitism, Hate and Extremism Bill 2026 have been drafted in a major rush to respond to the Bondi Beach massacre over the parliamentary holiday period. It’s a rush to create laws that would prevent targeted hate in the public sphere leading to extreme acts of violence.
Since the release of the exposure draft of the bill on 13 January, it’s caused a stir, due its length and the broad range of laws it seeks to amend, along with further concerns about the reach of the new national security and criminal law measures, with the likely implications of so many laws being drafted in such a hurry is that they capture a range of behaviour that they weren’t designed to.
The stamping out of hate is a tall order. Issues stemming from laws attempting to prevent the dissemination of hate necessarily involve encroachments on the right to free speech and the implied right to political communication. With laws that have been drafted on the fly, the risk is that they operate so broadly they capture legitimate speech or that the authorities use them to silence dissent.
The other key issue is that this onslaught of draconian lawmaking is being rolled out in the wake of an earlier round of “enacting the worst hate crime laws ever” in February 2025. Taken together with the over 100 pieces of national security/counterterrorism legislation enacted since the 2001 9/11 New York terror attacks, this legislation means that if an authoritarian government does take power, it will have a field day.
CRACKING DOWN TO PROMOTE HARMONY
A coalition of rights groups – the NSW Council for Civil Liberties, Liberty Victoria and the Queensland Council for Civil Liberties – released a statement outlining that the Combating Antisemitism Bill serves to combine “practical reforms such as the creation of a national gun buyback scheme with radical and unprecedented reforms to our democratic rights and liberties.”
The 13 January statement further underscores that the listing of prohibited hate groups provides “extraordinary powers” to the minister, allowing them to make broad classifications about groups, without the need of any procedural fairness, which is a legal principle requiring fairness and the right of appeal in administrative matters.
The Coalition further suggests that many of the measures in the bill “go far beyond what’s required to address the horrific events at Bondi”. The example given is the expansion of the prohibited symbols offences, under sections 80.2H and 80.2HA of the Code, as the onus of proof is being shifted to the defendant, for crimes that carry mandatory minimum sentences of 12 months.
The liberties experts also point to an issue with the Migration Act amendments, as the minister is being given the power to determine to cancel or not issue visas based on whether individuals “might” sow discord in the community, whereas right now, there has to be a determination that they “would” engage in such conduct to warrant deportation.
ABSURD
“The federal government is not undertaking this inquiry in good faith. Two days for submissions on legislation that potentially cuts across our democratic rights is absurd. We do not get to social cohesion with a government playing fast and loose with the community’s freedom of speech, association and religion,” NSWCCL president Timothy Roberts said.
“If the Albanese government was serious about the purported aim of this bill, then surely, they would be trying to take the community with them. At the current rate, they are not even taking the time to listen to them,” the respected lawyer said in conclusion.
“The federal government is driving division in seeking to extend criminal laws in such an ill-considered way. Criminal laws must be able to be clearly understood by the community to prevent miscarriages of justice.”
