MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Wednesday welcomed Parliament's passing of anti-hate speech and gun laws in response to two shooters killing 15 people at a Jewish festival in Sydney last month. Authorities say the attack was inspired by the Islamic State group.
“At Bondi, the terrorists had hate in their hearts, but they had guns in their hands,” Albanese told reporters, referring to the father and son gunmen
accused of attacking Jewish worshippers during Hanukkah celebrations at Bondi Beach on Dec. 14.
“We said we wanted to deal with that with urgency and with unity and we acted to deliver both,” Albanese added.
The government had initially planned a single bill, but separated the issues of hate speech and gun laws into two bills introduced to the House of Representatives on Tuesday.
The bills passed through the Senate late Tuesday with the minor Greens party supporting gun reform and the conservative opposition Liberal Party backing anti-hate speech laws.
Albanese's center-left Labor Party holds a majority in the House, but no party has a majority in the upper chamber.
Albanese said he was would have preferred stronger laws against hate speech, but the Senate would not compromise.
“If you can't get laws passed in the wake of a massacre, then it's difficult to see people changing their minds,” Albanese said.
The gun laws create new restrictions on gun ownership and create a government-funded buyback program to compensate people forced to hand in their firearms.
Anti-hate speech laws enable groups that don’t fit Australia’s definition of a terrorist organization, such as the Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir, to be outlawed as it is by some other countries.
Earlier Tuesday, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke told Parliament that alleged gunmen Sajid Akram, 50, and his 24-year-old son Naveed Akram wouldn't have been allowed to possess guns under the proposed laws.
The father, who was shot dead by police during the attack, legally owned the guns used.
His son, who was wounded, has been charged with dozens of offenses, including 15 counts of murder and one of committing a terrorist act over the attack.
Burke said that the Indian-born father would have been barred from gun ownership under the proposed laws because he wasn't an Australian citizen. The Australian-born son would also been banned, because he had come under surveillance in 2019 from the Australian Security Intelligence Organization, or ASIO, over his association with suspected extremists.
ASIO also has a role under the new anti-hate speech laws in deciding which hate groups should be outlawed. Neo-Nazi group National Socialist Network has announced plans to disband rather than have its members targeted under the laws.
The opposition Nationals party had broken away from its Liberal Party partners by opposing the anti-hate speech legislation, arguing it could impinge on free speech.
“The legislation needs amendments to guarantee greater protections against unintended consequences that limit the rights and freedom of speech of everyday Australians and the Jewish community,” Nationals leader David Littleproud said late Tuesday.
Parliament had been scheduled to resume for the year in February, but was brought back early to respond to Australia’s worst mass shooting since 1996.
A lone shooter killed 35 people in Tasmania state that year, in a massacre that galvanized the nation into introducing tough gun laws that drastically reduced the number of rapid-fire weapons in public ownership. The government then bought back almost 700,000 guns.
But the states of Tasmania and Queensland and the Northern Territory are resisting the federal push for a new gun buyback, for which the states and territories would be expected to pay half the cost.
Burke said his government would continue to negotiate with the states and territories on the buyback.
