Greens hold the cards to pass hate speech bill as Ley walks away

Australia’s response to its worst terror attack could collapse after the Opposition Leader Sussan Ley rejected the government’s anti-vilification laws and the Greens complained the proposed hate speech crackdown could crimp the pro-Palestinian protest movement.

Any goodwill between the major parties appeared to evaporate on Thursday when Ley declared Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s reforms to counter antisemitism were nearly unsalvageable, effectively killing off the chance of a bipartisan moment before Ley’s shadow cabinet debated the bill.

The opposition had for weeks called on Labor to adopt in full a report from the nation’s envoy to combat antisemitism, Jillian Segal, which included a proposal for anti-vilification laws.

But a broad range of civil rights groups, legal experts, and transparency advocates have criticised the bill, claiming it was too rushed, too broad, and might have a chilling effect on public discussion about issues such as terrorism and migration that might offend certain racial groups.

Albanese has scheduled a two-day parliamentary session to pass the laws next week and Labor appears most likely to try to pass the bill with the support of the Greens, who do not support the current draft but could shift if the government agreed to extend anti-vilification protections to disabled people, people of other faiths and the LGTBQ community.

“It is extraordinary that they are now saying it is being rushed when they were demanding, demanding and the front pages of newspapers were demanding that it be done prior to Christmas,” Albanese said in Queensland, hours after Ley criticised his handling of the antisemitism crackdown.

Ley said she would go to parliament next week and put forward a separate package of proposals because Labor’s attempt was confused.

“Now, the opposition will continue to scrutinise this legislation carefully, but from what we have seen so far, it looks pretty unsalvageable,” she told reporters in Melbourne.

After MPs raised concerns about Ley suggesting she might introduce her own legislation next week, she scheduled a party room meeting for all MPs on Friday afternoon.

Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-chief executive Peter Wertheim, a close associate of the prime minister, said the major parties must unite in the national interest, and 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 told this masthead.

Another Jewish community figure, NSW Jewish Board of Deputies president David Ossip, said it would be the “ultimate travesty” if the Greens, a party the Jewish community has at times accused of fuelling antisemitism, became kingmakers.

Greens deputy leader Mehreen Faruqi said her party would not back the bill in its current form. The minor party wants the anti-vilification laws, which are being rushed into parliament chiefly to target Islamic hate preachers, to extend protections to different minority groups. The Executive Council of Australian Jewry also supports this.

Faruqi aired concerns 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.

“Antisemitism is something that needs to be addressed at the roots and the crux of it,” Faruqi said, adding that all forms of hatred needed to be confronted at the same time as protecting “legitimate criticisms of nation states [and] the protest movement”.

Labor backbenchers told ministers in a caucus meeting on Monday that they wanted the laws expanded to protect a broader range of minorities. There is consideration inside Labor on creating a Senate inquiry in coming weeks to examine the broadening of the anti-vilification laws. But Greens sources said the party was now in a powerful bargaining position given Ley had been so scathing about the bill, meaning the minor party would be likely to accept nothing less than a move to expand anti-vilification protections in the current bill.

Civil liberties advocates have argued the bill’s language – including prohibitions on “promoting hatred” or conduct that might cause “fear or intimidation” – is too broad and risks criminalising mainstream political speech and social media posts, sparking concern inside the Coalition.

Greens senator David Shoebridge also criticised an element of the bill that allows the government to block visas more easily for people who might spew hate, labelling it a “scapegoating of migrants”.

Rainbow Labor NSW said they were “deeply concerned” by the bill’s failure to protect the queer community, in a letter sent to Albanese and Attorney-General Michelle Rowland on Thursday.

“Members of the LGBTQ communities are regular victims of vilification and hate and the exclusion from these laws will present a real and serious risk to the wider LGBTQ community,” the letter said.

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