Canberra, Jan 12 (IANS) Australia’s parliament will be recalled next week to introduce new hate speech and gun laws in response to the Bondi terror attack on December 14, according to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Monday.
The prime minister said at a press conference that both houses will return on January 19 and 20, earlier than the scheduled return on February 2.
“The terrorists at Bondi Beach had hatred in their minds but guns in their hands. This law will deal with both, and we need to deal with both,” Albanese said.
The Combatting Antisemitism, Hate and Extremism Bill covers a comprehensive package of reforms, including more serious penalties for hate crimes, new serious offences for hate preachers seeking to radicalise young Australians and inciting hatred to intimidate and harass, and a strengthened ban on prohibited symbols.
If passed, the bill will also make it easier for the minister for home affairs to cancel or refuse a visa for people intent on spreading hatred and enable the minister to list organisations as prohibited hate groups.
The government is going to move a condolence motion to acknowledge the victims of the attack before debating the bill.
The legislation will also set up the National Guns Buyback Scheme, aiming at “getting guns off” Australian streets, Xinhua news agency reported.
“We want to ensure that Australia remains a society where everyone has the right to be proud of who they are, and we also want to make it clear that conduct which is hateful, dangerous, and divisive will also be illegal,” the prime minister said.
Earlier on January 8, Anthony Albanese had called a royal commission into antisemitism and social cohesion in Australia in the wake of the terror attack at Sydney’s Bondi Beach.
Albanese had announced at a press conference in Canberra that his government will establish a royal commission, the highest form of inquiry in Australia, which will be led by former High Court justice Virginia Bell and deliver a report by mid-December.
–IANS
int/jk/
