The government originally planned to pass one bill that included gun reform and tougher new laws penalising hate speech.
But 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 forced the government to split the bill in two, with one targeting hate speech and the other gun reform.
Anthony Albanese on Monday during a condolence motion for victims of the Bondi terror attack.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
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.
But the government ditched contentious anti-vilification provisions, which included a new offence for promoting hatred that various civil society groups warned would curtail free speech.
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