‘Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good’: Jewish groups urge Ley to back bill

The Executive Council of Australian Jewry has urged the Coalition to pass Labor’s antisemitism reforms drafted after the Bondi attack, fearing that Opposition Leader Sussan Ley’s objections could “allow the perfect to become the enemy of the good”.

The call for unity from a prominent Jewish organisation echoes comments by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese this morning, who told ABC Radio he was “stunned” by the Coalition’s resistance to the proposal after almost a month of demands from the opposition that parliament be recalled.

Support for the bill from the Coalition now seems doomed, after Ley this morning said she had “extremely serious concerns” about the suite of hate speech measures.

The Executive Council of Australian Jewry on Thursday issued a statement urging the Coalition to work to pass the bill, which Ley described as “unsalvageable”.

“By all means, seek to amend the bill to remove its shortcomings, but a wholesale rejection of the bill would not at all be warranted. In our view, the defeat of the bill would be a retrograde step,” co-chief executive Peter Wertheim said.

“The entire history of legislative reform concerning this issue has been one of incremental steps towards achieving the effective proscription of speech that deliberately promotes hatred of people based on their race, nationality or ethnic origin. The current bill would represent a significant further step towards that destination, even if it does not completely get us there”.

The government’s omnibus antisemitism laws – which, among a number of measures, would crack down on “hate preachers”, increase penalties for hate speech, and establish a national gun buy-back scheme – will require the support of either the Coalition or the Greens to pass. The laws were drafted in the weeks after the attack and will be debated during a snap recall of parliament next Monday and Tuesday.

Despite weeks of clamouring for early debate, the federal Coalition argued the bill was rushed without a decent period of scrutiny. Key opposition figures have argued against any further gun reforms, said racial vilification laws would have free-speech implications, and fought against perceived restrictions on freedom of expression and religion.

Senior Jewish figures, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to protect future negotiations on behalf of their community, said there was time for the legislation to be slowly and methodically considered given the complexity and potential unintended consequences of its swift passage.

Rabbi Nochum Schapiro, former president of the Rabbinical Council of NSW, said the legislation needed a considered debate, but immediate action needed to be taken to stop pro-Palestinian protests and ban the use of chants such as “globalise the intifada”, “from the river to the sea” and “death to the IDF”.

“I’m not an expert on how much time [the legislation] needs, but it needs to have honest discussion, debate, non-politicised,” Shapiro said. “The wider bill needs to have full clarity of what the implications and repercussions of criticism would be.”

The proposed federal hate speech laws do not canvas the prohibition of public marches and demonstrations, which fall under state laws.

Bureaucrats from the attorney-general’s office told the parliamentary inquiry that it would be up to the courts to determine if an individual phrase was hate speech under the new laws.

Albanese on Thursday morning said it was “somewhat stunning, frankly” that the Coalition was backing away from the legislation after weeks of demands that the laws be debated and passed urgently. The prime minister referenced comments from Ley in the days after the attack in which she demanded parliament be recalled before Christmas, allowing only a few days for legislation to be drafted and distributed for consultation.

“You can’t have it both ways. And it just seems to me, people who were watching the events since December 14 would have seen politics being played by the Coalition. They’re still playing politics, and I’m just stunned that they are saying they will vote against legislation, a number of their members [will], without even looking at it,” Albanese told ABC Radio.

During a press conference on Thursday morning, Ley said she had “extremely serious concerns about the government’s legislation”, suggesting the government adopt the opposition’s proposed changes.

“The legislation does not address the real issues that gave rise to the Bondi attack. It doesn’t address Islamic extremism. It doesn’t address ISIS influence, and it doesn’t address the rise of antisemitism and the associated terrorist threat in Australia,” Ley said.

“From what we have seen so far, it looks pretty unsalvageable. As it stands, the government’s proposal is half-baked, and Australians deserve far better.”

The quoting of religious texts has been written into the bill as a legitimate defence in the new hate speech offences, and serves as a legal stopgap to the explicit constitutional right to freedom of religious expression.

Questioned about the constitutional implications, Ley said: “The government has presented a bill with a carefully planned excuse for hate preachers. I think they have opportunities to get around that.”

Albanese said he had met repeatedly with both Ley and Greens leader Larissa Waters to discuss the legislation, and was open to amendments. He said no amendments had been proposed to him so far.

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