Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s leadership continues to look weak in the aftermath of the Chanukah Massacre at Bondi Beach, forced to split his omnibus bill to get any of it passed.
The Prime Minister says it’s now up to the coalition to justify its position should it oppose amended hate speech legislation, after the Government split its legislative agenda in a move allowing Greens support on gun reform.
The Prime Minister moved to separate the proposals on Saturday after the Greens revealed they would only support the firearms legislation.
“This is a way in which (the Greens) can vote for the gun laws that they said they would vote,” he told reporters.
“These gun laws are really important; there is no reason why anyone should oppose these gun laws.”
However, most rural MPs have strongly opposed the gun laws as unfairly punishing law abiding gun owners, including farmers and sporting shooters.
“I don’t support this rushed, misguided legislation,” Member for Parkes Jamie Chaffey said.
“There’s no protection for Christians in hate speech laws, and the gun law changes punish regional Australians, small businesses, and sporting organisations.”
A Parliamentary Committee considering the legislation has also heard from farmers about how industry is wary of heavy-handed laws that would limit farmers’ access to firearms, with NFF and Cattle Australia seeking more information about how the proposed restriction and firearms register would work.
Mr Albanese also signalled the removal of racial vilification offences from the surviving hate speech bill as they were also unsupported.
“The hate crimes legislation will continue, the racial vilification laws do not have the support of the Senate,” he said.
“That is what the Greens party and the Liberal Party have made clear, so we deal with the parliament that we have.”
Greens leader Larissa Waters said the minor party would not back the reforms in their original form given the “significant amount of work required to meet community concerns”.
Opposition Leader Sussan Ley on Friday opposed the omnibus bill, calling it “pretty unsalvageable” as the hate speech element did not explicitly criminalise phrases such as “globalise the Intifada”.
Legal experts, Jewish groups, and influential religious leaders also criticised the bill as too rushed and broad.
No longer part of the opposition, One Nation turncoat Barnaby Joyce is putting forward his own amendment to the hate speech laws, taken straight out of the US Republican playbook and seeking to fix something that has never been a significant or frequent issue in Australia – a ban on burning the Australian flag.
Former Queensland MP George Christensen, who also ended his parliamentary career with a party switch from the LNP to One Nation, proposed a bill banning flag burning in 2016, which seemingly only had the impact of leading to the Left Renewal faction of the NSW Greens encouraging others to burn the flag in their protests including at “Invasion Day” protests on Australia Day in 2017.
Both parts of the now split bill will be thrashed out on Tuesday as part of an extraordinary parliamentary sitting week in response to the Bondi terrorist attack.
Next week, we're bringing Parliament back early to respond to the antisemitic terror attack at Bondi.
It's time for the politics to stop, and for Parliament to work together in the national interest. pic.twitter.com/fchkuPA9iO — Anthony Albanese (@AlboMP) January 17, 2026
Monday will feature a condolence motion for the victims of the 14 December massacre, after which the Senate will adjourn as a mark of respect.
With fresh battlelines drawn, Mr Albanese said it was now up to the coalition to justify its position to the community should it oppose the amended program.
“At the moment, they’re defined by what they’re against, but it’s not clear what they’re for,” he said.
“They have, up to this point, of course, called for parliament to be recalled and then opposed.
“They called for hate speech laws. When they’ve seen them, they’re now against them.”
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