Photo: ABC News/Jack Fisher
- Australian Prime Minister Albanese has announced a crackdown on "those who spread hate, division and radicalisation" with new laws.
- The new laws will add aggravated hate speech offences for preachers and leaders who promote violence.
- The PM also announced the Commonwealth has triggered disaster recovery payments for victims of the Bondi Beach terrorist attack.
- AFP Commissioner Krissy Barrett says her force is currently investigating "hate preachers".
- Amended hate speech laws will shift the threshold of current laws to capture speech that hasn't previously been considered illegal.
- Albanese says the government could have "always done more" to combat antisemitism.
- The home affairs minister will also gain the power to cancel or refuse visas on the grounds of antisemitism.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Thursday the government would seek to introduce new legislation to crack down on hate, after gunmen opened fire at a Jewish event in Sydney on Sunday, killing 15.
The interior ministry will be given new powers to cancel visas of those who spread hate.
Albanese said the laws were quite complex and the government needed to make sure the laws stacked up in any legal challenge.
Hate speech law changes announced on Thursday would develop a regime for listing organisations whose leaders engage in hate speech.
The prime minister defended his government's track record on hate speech law changes to date, but said more needed to be done.
"We want to also consult to make sure that there is broad support across the parliament for this.
"One of the tenets of antisemitism, the envoys have said across the board, needs to be to put it above politics as well. And we're hoping that that's achieved."
Gunman Naveed Akram has been formally charged with 59 offences over the attack, which claimed 15 lives. A second gunman, Akram's father Sajid, was shot dead by police at the scene.
Asked why he had not attended any of the funerals, he said he had been meeting with victims in their homes.
"I have met with the families and have spoken to them," he said, adding he wanted to respect their wishes.
"I will continue to engage with the community."
Anthony Albanese. Photo: ABC News
Albanese, asked if he believed the tenor of any of the pro-Palestine protests contributed to the Bondi Beach terrorist attack, said hatred starts with language which then moved to action, vilification and escalation.
"When people come to Australia, you leave old divisions and hatred at the door. When you come to Australia, you are here to support our society, which is diverse, but that diversity is a strength.
"We need to be able to have political discourse in this country which is respectful and to respectfully disagree, but a line has been crossed over and over again in the way that some of this debate has been conducted."
Australian Federal Police Commissioner Krissy Barrett, asked whether her job would have been easier if the changes had been made earlier, said there were "deficiencies, or the vulnerabilities" in the legislation.
"We've now had some time to work through that. And of course, we then provide advice back to the government on how the legislation is working," she said.
The key challenge, she said, applied to the thresholds.
"We certainly welcome the reform around the thresholds."
Barrett said the pace at which young people were being radicalised was a challenge. But it was not just one being faced in Australia, but overseas as well.
"The legislation in relation to violent extremist material has been an extremely useful piece of legislation for us since it came into effect, because what that has allowed us to do is get in early on the radicalisation pathway... either before court or disrupt their behavior at a very early stage."
Meanwhile, the New South Wales parliament will be recalled before Christmas to deal with "urgent legislation" on firearms, Premier Chris Minns said.
'Don't need them'
Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said people had often fallen just short of the legal threshold for prosecution.
Burke said penalties would be increased and aggravated offences included.
He said governments had not had the power to act on organisations which he said were trying to sow division.
"Today, we're announcing that we're shifting the threshold. We have no time for organisations where their mission is to hate Australia and to hate fellow Australians.
"There have been individuals who have managed to exploit a nation that had different principles of freedom of speech and have gone right to the limits of language that is clearly dehumanising, unacceptable, having no place in Australia, but have not quite crossed the threshold to violence."
Burke will be given new powers to cancel and refuse visas on the grounds of antisemitism.
"I've made clear, on the balance of bigotry versus freedom of speech, I think Australians share my view that people who come here to hate, we just don't need them."
- RNZ / Reuters / ABC News
