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Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has apologised to the Jewish community and the nation following the Bondi Beach terror attack on 14 December, which targeted a Jewish Hanukkah festival.
Standing next to the prime minister in Canberra, home affairs minister Tony Burke announced more detail on the legislative changes the government is hoping to get through parliament next year, in the wake of the attack.
“As prime minister, I feel the weight of responsibility for an atrocity that happened whilst I’m prime minister and I’m sorry for what the Jewish community and our nation as a whole has experienced,” Albanese said in Canberra on Monday.
He said “urgency and unity” is needed in the wake of the attack that killed 15 people and announced a number of proposed legislative reforms after meeting with his cabinet, including creating an aggravated offence for hate preaching.
Attorney-General Michelle Rowland said a new bill drafted over the coming weeks will “crack down on those who spread hate, division and radicalisation in our community and build upon the government’s existing hate speech laws”.
The measures that Rowland announced are an extension of those introduced by the Albanese government just last week. These initiatives focus on curbing hate speech and revising migration policies to facilitate the deportation of individuals with extremist ideologies.
The measures announced on Monday include an aggravated hate speech offence for preachers and leaders who promote or threaten violence, increased penalties for hate speech offences and making hate an aggravating factor in sentencing across a number of Commonwealth crimes.
Rowland also announced a new serious vilification offence that criminalises inciting hatred will be drafted after consultation with the Jewish community and others.
She also said the government will introduce a new aggravated offence targeting adults who seek to influence and radicalise children, including those who advocate violence against protected groups to children.
“We are witnessing an alarming trend of radicalisation among our youth, and it must come to an end. We cannot permit extremists to manipulate and indoctrinate our children into hatred or terrorism,” she stated emphatically.
Changes to ministerial powers over visas
Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke added proposed reforms to the minister’s power to cancel visas and said “… somebody who engages and has a history of engaging in hate speech, in vilification, in displaying hate symbols, will of itself be enough to cancel the visa.
“I always have to work out from the perspective of – ‘does it incite discord in the community?’ Establishing that somebody has engaged in hate speech and vilification on its own has not enough. Now it will be.”
Burke also announced proposed changes to customs laws to make it easier for hate symbols to be intercepted at the border, as well as establishing a new form of listing for organisations that have not been listed as terrorist organisations.
