From Senator Alex Antic
Did Labor have this terrible 319 page bill prepared well in advance of Bondi?
The 2025 Bondi massacre was the worst terrorist attack in Australia’s history. The killing of 15 people, and the injuring of a further 39 has shaken the nation.
In response, the Albanese Government has chosen to recall Parliament early for a two-day sitting to pass radical new legislation, ostensibly aimed at ‘Combatting Antisemitism, Hate and Extremism.’
This single Bill, if passed, represents arguably the greatest impost on free speech this country has ever witnessed in one legislative instrument.
If passed, it will result in drastic restrictions to free speech. It would also see further laws restricting firearm ownership, on top of the extremely tight laws already in place.
With respect to this proposed legislation, my stance is clear: I will be opposing this Bill in its entirety and urging all my parliamentary colleagues to do the same (just as I did with Labor’s last tranche of “hate speech” laws passed 12 months ago).
The only thing this Bill would achieve is a further erosion of Australian freedoms.
What’s more, the Bill threatens to hamper much needed political debate.
For the left, the concept of ‘hate speech’ has always been about preventing discussions and silencing opponents.
They have deployed the ‘hate speech’ accusation in a variety of ways over the past decade, to prevent discussions about everything from the Voice referendum to immigration policy.
They used a variation of it to prevent my Sex Discrimination Amendment (Restoring Biological Definitions) Bill 2025 from even being read ‘a first time’ in Parliament.
Their attitude is evident even in the way they have commenced the legislative process.
Australians who wanted to express their views in a submission discovered that a 2-day consultation period was all that was granted for this process. The exposure draft of this bill is 144 pages long!
As I told Sky News earlier in the week, it is odd to me that such a complex document was prepared so quickly. Maybe it doesn’t matter but one wonders how much of this Bill was already prepared before the events in Bondi.
Such a consequential Bill, perhaps the most consequential ever for free speech in this country, deserves a far greater opportunity for scrutiny.
Labor continues to take Australia down a very serious path, and I will continue to speak against their agenda to make sure that we always put Australia First.
