Australia plans to introduce laws to curb radicalisation and hate speech after 15 people were killed in an attack that took place during a Jewish gathering at Sydney's Bondi Beach on Sunday.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the proposed measures include broadening the definition of hate speech offences for preachers and leaders who promote violence; harsher punishments; designating some groups as hateful; and allowing judges to consider hate as an aggravating factor in cases of online threats and harassment.
Officials would have greater powers to reject or cancel visas “for those who spread hate and division in this country, or would do so if they were allowed to come here”, Mr Albanese said.
He did not suggest a timeline for the reforms, citing their legal complexity.
“There have been organisations that any Australian would look at and say their behaviour, their philosophy and what they are trying to do is about division and has no place in Australia,” Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke told reporters.
“And yet for a generation, no government has been able to successfully take action against them because they have fallen just below the legal threshold.”
The action against hate speech follows Mr Albanese's pledge after the shooting in Sydney to tighten Australia’s gun controls, which are already some of the toughest in the world. State leaders, too, have promised additional initiatives on firearms and stricter rules for protest gatherings.
But the fact that Mr Albanese has not attended any of the victims’ funerals so far – with local media reporting he has not been invited, despite the presence of other political leaders – hints at the fury among some Australian Jews towards the Prime Minister.
Mr Albanese said measures his government has already enacted, including a ban in February on Nazi salutes, show he takes the threat of antisemitism seriously.
“I, of course, acknowledge that more could have been done and I accept my responsibility for the part in that as prime minister of Australia,” Mr Albanese said on Thursday. “But I also accept my responsibility to lead the nation and unite the nation.”
Meanwhile, investigators continue to probe the suspected gunmen’s links in Australia and their travel to the Philippines before the attack, said Krissy Barrett, the country’s federal police commissioner. The younger shooting suspect, Naveed Akram, 24, was investigated for six months by Australia’s security services in 2019, officials have said.
Akram is being treated at a hospital in Sydney and was charged on Wednesday with 59 offences, including murder and committing a terrorist act. He has not entered a plea and many details of the case against him are suppressed by a judge.
The older suspect, Sajid Akram, 50, who was shot dead on Sunday, had amassed the guns used in the massacre legally. His gun licence was granted in 2023 – after his son came to the attention of authorities.
