The House of Representatives has returned today to debate condolence motions after the December 14 Bondi shooting.
We will bring you live updates from the key speeches made throughout the day.
You can watch the proceedings live below.
Thank you for following our live coverage of today’s condolence motion at Parliament House in Canberra to honour the victims of the Bondi shootings on December 14.
Here’s what happened today:
The live blog will return tomorrow to cover the passage of the Combatting Antisemitism, Hate and Extremism (Firearms and Customs Laws) 2026 and the Combatting Antisemitism, Hate and Extremism (Criminal and Migrations Laws) 2026 bills.
Liberal backbencher Andrew Hastie has urged a conversation about immigration and citizenship to be held after the Bondi shooting, as he thanked first responders for their efforts on December 14.
“Bondi Beach became a blood-soaked battlefield as tough and focused NSW Police, along with the efforts of brave bystanders, closed the distance and overcame the jihadists with lethal force, and I acknowledge those who, on the day, acted from love and courage to overcome hate and cowardice,” Hastie told the House of Representatives.
“The police who returned fire and neutralised the threat, the civilians like Ahmed al Ahmed and the late Boris and Sophia Gurman, who disrupted the attack and created space and time for our police to get in shooting range,” he said.
Hastie said the police and Bondi heroes, alongside doctors, nurses, and survivors were “the best of Australia” and should be honoured.
“The hard truth of the Bondi Beach attack remains while our Jewish neighbours sought our welfare with a peaceful religious festival, our authorities were unable to uphold their welfare in return. This failure needs a close examination,” Hastie said.
“We must talk about immigration and citizenship and the kind of country we wanted Australia to become to avoid this, to ignore the darker truth at the heart of the bonder Bondi terror attack.”
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has released a statement about the passing of West Australian Labor figure Tim Picton, who was killed following an alleged “coward punch” on December 27.
“I am greatly saddened at the passing of Tim Picton. Tim was a treasured member of the Labor family, serving with great energy and talent at many levels, including as West Australian Labor state secretary and campaign director,” Albanese said in a post to social media platform X.
“He helped the Labor Party win because he wanted Labor governments to change the country for the better. Tim should have had many more decades ahead of him. That he has been taken from the world so young is such a cruel tragedy.
“On behalf of the government, I extend my deepest condolences to Tim’s wife Priya, his daughter Charlotte, and to the rest of his family, his friends and his broader Labor family. May Tim rest in peace.”
You can read the full story about Picton’s death here.
Speeches on the condolence motion for the victims of the Bondi shooting are still taking place, over seven hours after the motion was tabled by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. The speeches will continue throughout the day.
The focus tomorrow will turn to two pieces of legislation that the government would like to have pass by the end of the day.
The Combatting Antisemitism, Hate and Extremism (Firearms and Customs Laws) 2026 and the Combatting Antisemitism, Hate and Extremism (Criminal and Migrations Laws) 2026 bills will be tabled in the House of Representatives, and will both pass the lower house as the government has a majority.
Things will be more interesting in the Senate, where the government is seeking support from the Coalition on the criminal and migration law changes, and the Greens on firearms and customs laws. At present, it appears both pieces of legislation will pass without issue, but that doesn’t mean there won’t be lively debate in the chamber.
Muslim Labor MP Ed Husic has invoked his family background in a call for calm and unity, as the country reckons with the Bondi shooting, in which 15 people were killed.
“The roots of my family tree come from a place that shredded itself with ethnic and religious hatred,” Husic told the House of Representatives during condolence motions for the attack.
“What I’ve resolved, what I bring to this moment, from the moment I took my first oath to serve here, is a determination that a country that has been so good to so many, will never contend with the same fate. Unity always.”
Husic was Australia’s first Muslim federal minister in the last parliamentary term, but was relegated to the backbench after the 2025 election. Husic’s family is Bosnian, and he has often alluded to the conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the 1990s as a crisis he does not want to see replicated in Australia.
One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has warned that she should not be underestimated, saying she has the political experience to lead her party to government.
“I’ve had an uphill career to remain in this place, to be a representative. I’ve had everything, bar the kitchen sink thrown at me, and I’ve learned over the years I’m not just this little woman that came out of my fish and chip shop,” she told journalists at Parliament House.
“I’ve got 30 years of experience under my belt. So if you want to take me on, if you want to underestimate me, then you do it.”
The last time a federal government was formed by a party other than the Coalition or Labor was in 1939.
During her press conference, Hanson described herself as “smart” for having recruited former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce from the Nationals, a factor she believes has contributed to her party’s soaring polling. “This is what leadership is about. It’s about getting the right team around you,” she said.
One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has said she is ready to lead the country, as her party captures record high polling for a minor party, saying she has “really got a job ahead” of her.
In The Australian’s Newspoll, One Nation was polling at 22 per cent of the primary vote, above the Coalition. No other poll has shown numbers that high. This masthead’s Resolve Political Monitor shows the party at 18 per cent of the primary vote.
“I want to thank the Australian people for their support and confidence they are now advocating for One Nation. This is the first poll in Australia’s history that another party is polling higher than one of the major parties. I am proud to acknowledge One Nation is polling higher than the Liberals,” Hanson told journalists at Parliament House in Canberra.
“I’m not just here to prop up the Coalition or the Labor Party or anyone else. I put out clear policies now for three decades,” she said.
“I’ve really got a job ahead of me now, I really have. By putting us at 22 per cent of the national poll at the moment, that said I’ve got a hell of a job ahead of me with my other colleagues, and we’ve got to maintain that support and confidence from the Australian people that we can hopefully form government,” she said.
Hanson said the support comes after she stood her ground on issues like net zero, the COVID-19 vaccine and migration.
“It is not racism to call out or criticise policy, which the [sic] both major political parties have tried to advocate,” she said.
The government has announced further detail on the national day of mourning to be held on January 22 in honour of the Bondi shooting victims.
“Members of the public are invited to observe one minute of silence on the national day of mourning to honour those impacted by the Bondi Beach terrorist attack at 19:01 AEDT on 22 January 2026,” the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet said in a statement.
“You are also encouraged to come together, share a meal and spend time with family and friends of all faiths and backgrounds on Thursday 22 January 2026; leave a candle on your doorstep or window as a symbol of remembrance, mourning and solidarity with the Jewish community; undertake one of more of the 15 suggested Mitzvah for Bondi,” the statement said.
Condolence messages can be shared online through the virtual Bondi Beach condolence book. An official event to be held at the Chabad of Bondi will be invitation online, but will be livestreamed on YouTube.
There is no formal requirement for events to be suspended or businesses closed on the day.
Education Minister Jason Clare has broken down in tears as he read a statement in the House of Representatives from a survivor of the Bondi shooting, named Jessica, who ran from the shooters with her daughter.
“My five-year-old daughter and I are survivors of the Hanukkah Bondi Beach massacre on Sunday the 14th of December 2025. My daughter and I ran along with hundreds of children and adults. We threw ourselves to the ground,” Clare read.
“We covered our children with our bodies, our bodies, and as the gunshots came closer and closer as flying bits of flesh and bone sprayed over us, there was no mistaking it. This was a massacre,” he read.
“I realised I was no longer preparing to survive. I was preparing for how I wanted my daughter and I to die. I leaned into her ear and spoke the only words that came to me. ‘Go inside yourself, my darling, go to your beloved. Stay there, my baby, stay there,’” Clare read.
While reading the statement, the minister broke down in tears, wiping his eyes with a handkerchief.
Earlier in his speech, Clare said: “In the short time that I have, can I offer my deepest condolences to everyone who loved them and who must be still drowning in their own grief. Can I also thank everybody who ran towards the danger that day and whose actions that day and in the days after must have saved the lives of dozens more,” Clare said.
Opposition home affairs spokesman Jonno Duniam said the government should revisit its abandoned hate speech reforms, despite his party’s opposition to the laws.
The Coalition had demanded the full implementation of antisemitism envoy Jillian Segal’s report on combating antisemitism, which among other things called for tougher racial vilification laws, but rejected the government’s proposed laws, which led to the reforms being abandoned.
Asked about the contradicting positions, Duniam said: “The government … should consider bringing it back and indeed go through a proper process. These are something that can’t be dealt within a week and amended on the fly.”
“What was wrong – the way it was drafted came with significant risk and potential unintended, unintended consequences, and so therefore we needed to minimise, if not ameliorate, those risks altogether,” Dunaim told Sky News.