ECAJ urges Coalition not to reject bill despite shortcomings

Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-CEO Peter Wertheim has urged the Coalition not to reject the federal government’s anti-hate legislation despite its shortcomings, saying the defeat of the bill would be “a retrograde step”.

Wertheim’s intervention on Thursday came as opposition leader Sussan Ley signalled the Liberals would not back the “unsalvageable” hate crime and gun control reforms.

“Some of the Opposition’s criticisms of the Bill are valid and repeat concerns which we ourselves have expressed about the Bill’s shortcomings. However, there are also some important positives in the Bill, including the introduction of a new listing regime to proscribe extremist hate organisations,” Wertheim said.

“The ECAJ would urge the Coalition not to allow the perfect to become the enemy of the good. By all means seek to amend the Bill to remove its shortcomings, but a wholesale rejection of the Bill would not at all be warranted. In our view, the defeat of the Bill would be a retrograde step.”

Wertheim said the entire history of legislative reform on the issue had been one of incremental steps towards achieving the effective proscription of speech that deliberately promotes hatred of people based on their race, nationality or ethnic origin.

“The current Bill would represent a significant further step towards that destination even if it does not completely get us there,” he said.

“The status quo is no longer tolerable after the antisemitic terrorist attack in Bondi. We need legislative reform now even if it is less than ideal.”

Parliament is due to resume on Monday to debate and pass the Combatting Antisemitism, Hate and Extremism Bill 2026, drafted following the December 14 Bondi terror attack.

However, despite weeks of criticising prime minister Anthony Albanese for not immediately recalling parliament after gunmen killed 15 at the Chanukah by the Sea event, Ley has raised concerns about “rushed” legislation.

At a press conference on Thursday morning, Ley said the legislation did not address the real issues that gave rise to the Bondi attack.

“It doesn’t address Islamic extremism. It doesn’t address ISIS influence, and it doesn’t address the rise of antisemitism and the associated terrorist threat in Australia,” Ley said.

“There are two tests for this legislation. The first, eradicate antisemitism and the second, crackdown on radical Islamic extremism. The laws achieve neither of these things. There’s more than 500 pages of legislation and the term ‘radical Islam’ is not mentioned once. If the Prime Minister can’t name the problem, he can’t tackle it.”

Ley said the legislation protects hate preachers by making exemptions for things written in religious texts but fails to define what those religious texts may be.

“It risks criminalising speech that has nothing to do with antisemitism or radical Islam. It sets up a gun buyback scheme that we don’t even know if the States will support. These are not minor drafting issues, they go to whether these laws will work at all,” she said.

“The Attorney General’s department couldn’t tell us if phrases like ‘globalise the intifada’ or ‘from the river to the sea’ would be captured by this law. Officials couldn’t even answer whether a fatwa preached by an Islamic extremist was classified as a religious text.”

Ley said legal expert Chris Merritt described the religious text exemption as “a guide for hate preachers by telling them exactly what they need to do in order to continue to promote racial hatred”.

“The Opposition will continue to scrutinise this legislation carefully but from what we have seen so far, it looks pretty unsalvageable. As it stands, the government’s proposal is half-baked and Australians deserve far better,” she said.

Her comments follow Ley holding a Liberal leadership meeting on Wednesday evening.

Liberal members have indicated the bill is unlikely to receive approval from the Coalition party room in its current form amid concerns the new racial hatred offence infringes on religious freedoms. The Nationals, meanwhile, oppose the gun reform elements of the proposal.

Albanese told ABC Radio Sydney on Thursday he was “stunned” by the Coalition’s position.

“The Coalition, day after day, very clearly called for Parliament to be recalled not on Monday, January 19, but during Christmas week,” Albanese said.

“Now they’re saying that this is somehow rushed, even though my government has moved in a considered, orderly way. I’ve met with Sussan Ley on a weekly basis. We provided notice in advance that we would prepare the legislation for the 12th of January.”

Albanese said the government was open to amendments to make sure it got the legislation right but had not heard any proposed amendments from the opposition.

“What we’ve had is people who haven’t even looked at the legislation declaring that it should be opposed,” he said.

“This should have been a moment of national unity. That’s what occurred after the Lindt Siege, after Port Arthur, after the Bali Bombings.”

When asked about concerns from NSW premier Chris Minns and Wertheim about the religious exception for religious texts, and concerns from constitutional lawyer Anne Twomey that the hate speech provisions were too broad, Albanese said the government was open to constructive changes.

“If there are changes which are constructive, I’ve said very clearly that we are open to dialogue,” he said.

Australian Jewish Association CEO Robert Gregory urged all members of parliament to reject the bill, saying the manner in which it was being rushed through parliament was “deeply concerning”.

“This process denies Australians the opportunity to properly scrutinise and comment on legislation of significant consequence. I have spoken with members of the Jewish community who are shocked that measures purportedly designed to protect them are being introduced without genuine consultation,” Gregory said.

“It is also unclear what problem this bill is intended to solve. The Bondi Beach Chanukah massacre was allegedly motivated by radical Islamic ideology, yet the proposed legislation goes out of its way to avoid confronting that reality.”

Gregory added, “I am deeply concerned that invoking the Jewish community as the justification for this deeply flawed bill will, in fact, lead to an increase in antisemitism.”