Labor backs down on post-Bondi changes as political support collapses

The Albanese government has been forced into a major backdown in its response to the Bondi attack, declaring it will now split its legislation in two and bring separate bills for gun laws and hate speech, as political support for its original reform package collapsed on Saturday.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Saturday that the most contentious element of the original bill, provisions to stamp out antisemitism with new anti-vilification laws, did not have enough support in the Senate.

That is because earlier in the day, in a blow to the government’s political fortunes, the Greens announced they would join the Coalition in opposing Labor’s original omnibus bill, which included laws to tackle firearms, hate speech, migration issues and racial vilification.

“We will only proceed with measures that have the support of the parliament,” Albanese said on Saturday afternoon.

The government has recalled parliament to sit from Monday, and in the Senate it needs the support of either the Liberals or the Greens to enact its changes.

Labor’s original bill included new powers to set up a national gun buyback, toughen gun importation rules, ban hate groups and changes to migration law that would allow the immigration minister to refuse or cancel visas if a person had associated with hate groups or made hateful comments. These elements will be retained in the two bills to be brought to parliament from Monday.

However, the government has ditched contentious anti-vilification provisions, which included a new offence for promoting hatred that various civil society groups warned would curtail free speech.

The prime minister said the Greens had engaged in good faith with the government, after leader Larissa Waters confirmed that her party would back only the gun reforms, which are now expected to pass parliament next week. Waters said the Greens would not support the hate speech and racial vilification measures.

However, Albanese said the federal opposition had been hypocritical in its response to date, given it had urged that parliament be recalled to deliver reform and then rejected his bill. He demanded Opposition Leader Sussan Ley confirm her position on the new bills.

“They have up to this point, of course, called for parliament to be recalled and then opposed [the bill]. When we did it, they called for hate speech laws. When they’ve seen them, they’re now against them,” he said.

Ley criticised Albanese for recanting on his previous claim that the changes could not be adjusted and criticised the parliamentary deadline for dealing with them, which she said prevented community voices from being heard.

“He has decided to split what he told Australians was an un-splittable bill, including when directly asked by the opposition leader face-to-face,” a spokesman for Ley said in a statement.

A government source said it was in negotiations with the Greens and the opposition on the new, truncated hate speech bill.

Waters said on Saturday that there was not enough time to analyse and negotiate the omnibus bill.

“It may be simpler to start afresh with a bill that aims to protect everyone from hatred and discrimination,” she said.

The Greens want Labor’s proposed anti-vilification laws to be broadened from protecting just racial hatred – designed to protect Jews after Bondi – to encompass LGBTQ and religious protections.

Ley all but ended the prospects of the Coalition supporting bill when she said on Thursday that the changes were nearly unsalvageable, even before her shadow cabinet debated it.

The standalone gun bill presents a new challenge for the opposition. Nationals leader David Littleproud has campaigned against firearm reform, labelling it a distraction from tackling antisemitism.

Civil rights groups, legal experts and transparency advocates have criticised the original bill and argued it had been rushed, was too broad, and could have restricted public debate on issues that could offend racial groups, such as terrorism and migration.

The Greens are also concerned that Labor wanted to curb the pro-Palestinian protest movement, which uses chants such as “Globalise the intifada” and “River to the sea”. There have been debates about whether these slogans encourage violence.

Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-chief executive Peter Wertheim, a close associate of the prime minister, said last week that the major parties must unite in the national interest and that Labor needed to accept a Coalition request to get rid of a proposed religious text exemption in the draft law.

“If this all falls over, it means we’re sending a signal to the world that we just had the worst terror attack in our history and we can’t decide what to do about it,” he said.

However, Catholic Archbishop of Sydney Anthony Fisher – whom Albanese, a Catholic, meets regularly – on Friday co-signed a letter to Albanese with top Muslim, Buddhist, Sikh and Scientology leaders asking him to shelve the anti-vilification laws because they could crimp religious expression.

“A rushed legislative process of this nature undermines confidence, increases the risk of unintended consequences, and does not assist community unity or social cohesion,” the letter said.

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